Hedge funds’ overall momentum in 2021 has been halted, with managers across a range of strategy classes left counting the cost of September’s bumpy equity and credit market reversal, new industry data published this week shows.

New data published by Hedge Fund Research shows managers overall gained 0.13 per cent in September. That gain puts HFR’s main Fund Weighted Composite Index – a broad-based index tracking the monthly returns of some 1400 single manager hedge funds across all strategy types – up 10.09 per cent since the start of January.

Swedish asset manager Brummer & Partners’ flagship multi-strategy hedge fund vehicle edged into positive territory in September, as stock market highs earlier in the month rapidly reversed amid renewed volatility, and commodity prices surged higher.

The global hedge fund business continues to set, then break, new overall AUM records as investors pour more money into hedge funds and performance gains bolster industry AUM further. 

Global hedge fund industry assets are surging to record levels.

Launched in October 2019, the tailored product managed by alternatives provider SYZ Capital, in partnership with Banca March has reached the symbolic milestone of EUR200 million of assets under management – effectively doubling in a year. 

Net assets of UCITS and AIFs increased by 4.1 per cent in Q2 2021, taking total net new money in H1 2021 to EUR430 billion, according to the latest quarterly European statistics from the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA). 

With hedge funds’ year-to-date returns rebounding back into double-digit territory, new industry data published on Monday shows how emerging markets managers are helping to galvanise the industry and fuel recent gains.

CTAs and trend-following hedge fund strategies have experienced a sluggish start to September, having had a disappointing August in what Société Générale describes as a “challenging environment” for the sector.

London-based crypto hedge fund Nickel Digital Asset Management has seen its assets soar some 260 per cent this year, as its range of cryptocurrency-focused strategies have generated gains throughout the sector’s rollercoaster ride.