Hedge funds lost 0.18% in December, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge The Index was up 3.16% in 2014.
“Renewed concerns of a Greek exit from the European Union, plummeting oil prices, and swooning Russian financial markets took a toll on global equity and commodity markets as risk assets staged a broad decline,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Overall, 8 of Barclay’s 18 hedge fund indices had losses in December. The Emerging Markets Index fell 2.34% in December, Distressed Securities were down 0.70%, Equity Short Bias lost 0.43%, and the Event Driven Index gave up 0.28%.
“Declining commodity prices dealt a particularly heavy blow to emerging market economies that are commodity exporters,” says Waksman.
On the positive side, the Barclay Healthcare & Biotechnology Index continued its strong performance, gaining 3.92% in December. The Multi Strategy Index gained 1.71%, European Equities were up 1.58%, and Technology added 0.87%.
At yearend, the Barclay Hedge Fund Index gained 3.16%, but underperformed the MSCI World Index’s 4.9% return. All but two of Barclay’s 18 hedge fund indices were profitable. Healthcare & Biotechnology led all hedge fund strategies with a 22.64% gain.
“2014 had its share of mid-month price reversals. Although hedge funds were not able to keep up with equity markets when prices suddenly turned upward, they did a good job of protecting the downside on the sharp declines,'’ says Waksman.
Multi Strategy was up 6.11% for the year, Fixed Income Arbitrage gained 5.37%, Equity Market Neutral was up 4.77%, Global Macro gained 4.10%, Equity Long Bias rose 3.28%, and the Equity Long/Short Index was up 3.17%.
For the third year in a row, the Equity Short Bias Index ended up in negative territory, losing 13.98%. Short Bias has suffered losses in five of the last six years.
The Barclay Fund of Funds Index gained 0.06% in December, and was up 2.78% in 2014.
