Oyster BM Alternativos – an alternative UCITS fund of funds launched a year ago by SYZ Capital with Spain’s Banca March, and led by hedge fund industry veteran Cédric Vuignier – has weathered 2020’s turbulence to grow its assets to EUR100 million (USD118.1 million), making gains in Japanese and convertible arbitrage-focused positions.

Hedge funds posted a third consecutive month of inflows in August, adding USD5.6 billion in new assets to July’s USD10.5 billion in inflows and June’s USD15.1 billion as the industry continued its rebound from spring’s pandemic-driven redemptions.

Investor confidence in hedge funds appears to be on the rise, with allocators pouring in some USD13 billion between July and September, the first quarterly net inflow into the industry in two-and-a-half years.

London-based oil-focused hedge fund Westbeck Capital’s flagship energy strategy suffered its biggest loss this year in last month’s violent market sell-off, shedding 15.2 per cent as its long oil equity positions were sent into a tailspin.

Man Group’s shares rose on Friday morning after the London-listed global hedge fund group’s latest quarterly results showed funds under management swelled 4 per cent in Q3 to USD113.1 billion - driven by what CEO Luke Ellis described as “strong growth” in performance and “robust net inflows” in its alternatives and long-only strategies.

Managed futures funds reversed course in September losing 0.67 per cent, according to the Barclay CTA Index, compiled by BarclayHedge. For the year-to-date, CTAs are up 2.09 per cent.

The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Index, which provides a representative baseline for how the broad liquid alternative investment category performs, returned -0.73 per cent in September, underperforming the -0.17 per cent monthly return of the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index. 

After five straight months in the black, hedge funds posted a negative number in September losing 0.65 per cent for the month, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index, compiled by BarclayHedge, a division of Backstop Solutions. 

AlphaSwap, an investment technology platform which bundles its analyst community’s best equity investment ideas for institutional customers, has onboarded its first institutional clients and completed a USD1 million fundraising, including venture funding from the UK government’s Future Fund.

Merger arbitrage and event driven hedge fund strategies can capitalise on the recent pick-up in M&A activity globally, and help cushion investors’ portfolios amid potential risk aversion as a result of the US election, Brexit and a fresh Covid-19 surge in Q4, industry strategists say.