With the net flow of investor capital remaining firmly positive for the year, and slightly positive for April, the global hedge fund industry seems to be on positive footing so far in 2018.
However, nearly 63 per cent of reporting managers faced some level of net outflow in April, the most elevated level seen since October 2016. Those outflows were generally small though and were outweighed by new funds coming into the industry.
Investors allocated an additional USD1.78 billion to hedge funds during April, bringing year-to-date (YTD) flows to the industry to USD13.67 billion and total industry assets under management (AUM) to USD3.316 trillion.
Among primary strategies, Macro funds were big winners in April, with USD3.23 billion. This is similar to how these funds began 2017, with a surge of investor interest. Macro funds are up USD11.81 billion for the year.
Directional credit funds were also big winners in April, at +USD2.89 billion, bringing YTD flows to USD8.21 billion.
Managed Futures funds saw the biggest outflows among primary strategies at -USD1.79 billion. Event-Driven funds also lost AUM, down USD1.63 billion in April and down USD5.23 billion YTD.
Among types of funds, Multi-Asset and Fixed-Income funds pulled in USD2.55 billion and USD2.29 billion respectively. Equity funds were down USD3.86 billion in April.
While almost 65 per cent of Emerging Markets hedge funds saw outflows in April, the segment was overall positive at USD1.99 billion for the month.
