A latest industry report by PerTrac has found that long/short equity is the most popular strategy executed by alternative UCITS funds. Entitled “The Coming of Age of Alternative UCITS Funds” the 30-page report also found that between January 2002 and October 2011 funds invested in emerging markets had delivered the best performance and that smaller funds outperform their larger peers based on a comparison of equal- and asset-weighted cumulative returns on PerTrac’s Alternative UCITS Fund Index. Of the 1,210 ‘newcits’ fund in its index over 25 per cent pursue LSE strategies. Global macro, CTA/Managed Futures and multi-strategy enjoyed near-equal favour with each accounting for over 11 per cent of funds. The report found that in terms of performance the index generated a cumulative return of 62 per cent between January 2002 and October 2011 on an equal-weighted basis. Another reveling aspect of the report was that overall AUM growth has rocketed from just EUR5.4billion at the start of 2002 to nearly EUR150billion as of last October. Lisa Corvese (pictured), Managing Director of Global Strategy at PerTrac said the report showed that alternative UCITS funds were becoming more “mainstream”. “The turbulence of the last few years has compelled investors to seek out alternative investments with greater transparency, liquidity and risk controls. Based on a robust AUM growth since 2009, it would appear that Alternative UCITS funds have increasingly become a solution of choice,” said Corvese. The full report can be accessed by going to PerTrac’s website: www.pertrac.com