Hedge funds posted gains in September with the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index up 0.96 per cent and the HFRX Market Directional Index up 2.23 per cent.
The HFRX Event Driven Index posted a gain of 2.10 per cent for September, led by gains in special situations and activist exposures. The index leads all strategy indices with a YTD gain of 10.87 per cent.
The HFRX Special Situations Index gained 2.96 per cent for the month, the strongest gain since January and leading all sub-strategy indices with a YTD gain of 4.2 per cent. The index had specific contributions from core positioning in Ferro, Chemtura, Dish Network ,Tribune Co, American Airlines, Elan, Dell, Apple, Verizon and Kabel.
HFRX Distressed Index gained +0.52 per cent for the period with contributions from various restructurings across communications, consumer cyclical and non-cyclical exposures. HFRX Merger Arbitrage Index posted a gain of 0.41 per cent, with contributions from transactions in American Safety/Fairfax, FNB/BCSB Bancorp, Verizon/Vodafone, Koch/Molex, Akorn/Hi-Tech Pharmacal and Thermo Fisher/Life Technologies.
The HFRX Equity Hedge Index posted a gain of 1.36 per cent for September, the 14th monthly gain in the last 16 months, with gains distributed across growth and value exposures. HFRX Fundamental Growth Index and HFRX Fundamental Value Index gained 2.11 per cent and 1.10 per cent, respectively, with broad based contributions from exposure to large and small cap US, global healthcare, European and emerging Asian equities. HFRX Fundamental Value Index leads all EH sub-strategy indices through September with a YTD gain of 10.7 per cent.
The HFRX Relative Value Arbitrage Index posted a gain of 0.42 per cent for September, as the US Fed continued monthly bond purchases and US corporate issuance reached record levels, as issuers positioned for higher future borrowing costs. HFRX Fixed Income Credit Index gained 0.53 per cent with contributions from falling yields, tightening credit and new corporate issuance, such as the Verizon bond offering.
HFRX Convertible Arbitrage Index gained 0.46 per cent on credit tightening, falling yields and strong issuance trends; the index leads RV sub-strategy indices with YTD gain of 9.6 per cent.
HFRX MLP Index gained 0.89 per cent for the month of strong demand for yield and energy infrastructure partnerships, leading all indices through September with a YTD gain of 18.0 per cent.
The HFRX Macro Index posted a decline of 0.26 per cent for September, with positive contributions of Currency and Emerging Markets managers offset by mixed performance of quantitative Systematic CTA strategies.
The HFRX Emerging Markets Index posted a gain of 0.28 per cent with positive contributions from Emerging Asian and Currency strategies.
The HFRX Macro: Systematic Diversified Index declined 0.59 per cent with mixed contributions from long equities, while short fixed income and long commodity positions detracted from performance.
