Hedge funds took USD11.2 billion (0.5 per cent of assets) in March, down from a three-year high of USD24.9 billion (1.2 per cent of assets) in February, according to BarclayHedge and TrimTabs.
“Investors pumped USD38.6 billion into hedge funds in the first quarter, the best quarterly inflow since the first quarter of 2011, when the industry took in USD47.9 billion,” says Sol Waksman, president and founder of BarclayHedge.
Industry assets climbed to a five and a half year high of USD2.2 trillion in March, according to estimates based on data from 3,375 funds.
Assets rose 19 per cent in the past 12 months but were down nine per cent from the all-time high of USD2.4 trillion in June 2008.
The hedge fund industry earned just 0.02 per cent in March but outperformed the S&P 500, which lost 0.8 per cent. In the past 12 months, the industry returned 8.5 per cent, while the S&P 500 gained 22.0 per cent.
Equity long bias hedge funds, the best-performing category in the past 12 months, had a rough month.
“Equity long bias funds delivered a return of just 0.2 per cent in March, down from their six-month high of 3.0 per cent in February,” Waksman says.
The monthly TrimTabs/BarclayHedge Survey of Hedge Fund Managers finds that more than half of surveyed managers are neutral on the S&P 500 over the next 30 days, the highest level in two years, and the rest are evenly split between bullish and bearish. The majority favouring developed markets grew a bit slimmer as optimism on emerging markets climbed to a 13-month high.
