Aggregate hedge fund industry performance slipped into the red again in September, with the industry returning -0.11 per cent last month, according to eVestment September 2019 hedge fund performance figures.
This marked the second consecutive month of negative industry returns, although the industry is still positive for the year, with aggregate year-to-date (YTD) industry returns coming in at +6.35 per cent. Across the industry, 82 per cent of products have produced positive results in 2019 with average gains among positive performers of +10.56 per cent.
There’s more green than red in returns across the strategies and fund types eVestment tracks. But Managed Futures funds’ big negative returns of -3.88 per cent in September were a big drag on the overall industry figures. In spite of the sharp drop among those funds in September, Managed Futures funds are still strongly positive for the year, returning +7.70 per cent YTD.
Other primary strategies slipping into the red in September were Macro funds (-0.12 per cent), Relative Value Credit funds (-0.19 per cent) and Market Neutral Equity funds (-0.72 per cent), although all are still positive YTD.
Activist funds were the strongest performers among primary strategies in September, returning +1.24 per cent and +1.13 per cent respectively. With YTD returns at +8.00 per cent Event Driven – Activist funds are among the strongest primary strategies for returns so far this year.
Long/Short Equity funds eked out positive average returns of +0.42 per cent in September, but with YTD average returns at +8.72 per cent these funds are putting up the best 2019 performance figures so far among primary strategies eVestment tracks.
India-focused funds saw a big turnaround in September, returning +4.80 per cent last month. This dents, but doesn’t eliminate, India-focused funds’ poor returns for the year, which stand at -4.04 per cent YTD.
Russia and China-focused funds are still the best performing funds of all types tracked by eVestment YTD, returning +15.86 per cent and +14.79 per cent respectively for the year. Brazil-focused funds aren’t far behind, returning +11.98 per cent so far in 2019.
