After being just slightly positive in April 2018, hedge fund AUM were just slightly negative in May of this year, with investors pulling USD1.59 billion from the industry during the month, according to the latest eVestment Hedge Funds Report.
Overall year-to-date fund flows are still positive, at +USD12.51 billion, with overall industry AUM sitting at USD3.319 trillion.
Despite the visible negativity, there are still many products gaining assets, but for each gainer there was another losing a little bit more. For instance, among hedge fund types, Equity-focused funds pulled in +USD3 billion in May and Commodities funds pulled in USD470 million, while Fixed-Income/Credit funds saw AUM fall -USD2.38 billion and Multi-Asset funds saw AUM fall -USD2.63 billion.
Among primary strategies, Multi-Strategy funds saw AUM increase USD2.23 billion. However, YTD 2018 flows are still negative at -USD2.74 billion, following up a negative full year 2017 where Multi-Strategy fund AUM dropped -USD4.11 billion.
Market Neutral Equity funds are having a strong year among primary strategies, with inflows of +USD1.76 billion in May and YTD AUM up USD5.89 billion. These funds had a strong year last year as well, with flows at USD11.57 billion.
Managed Futures fund redemption pressures continued in May, with these funds seeing -USD3.92 billion in flows. About 63 per cent of reporting managed futures products experienced redemptions in May, bringing the proportion losing assets YTD up to 60 per cent.
Half of Emerging Markets funds saw positive flows in May, with segment AUM up USD570 million, and more than half are positive YTD, bringing YTD Emerging Markets fund flows to +USD2.22 billion and overall Emerging Markets fund AUM to USD308.46 billion.
