Hedge funds delivered another month of impressive performance in July, with an overall weighted average return of 1.5% – one of their best months so far this year, albeit a slight decline from the 1.8% monthly high seen in June, according to data from Citco.
The rate of return spread fell from 8.8% in June to 6.7% in July, signifying a decrease in the volatility of returns.
The top performing strategies for the month were equities (1.8% weighted average return), fixed income arbitrage (1.6% weighted average return), and global macro (1.5% weighted average return). Commodities meanwhile, saw their first positive monthly return this year, with weighted average returns of 1.3%.
Funds in the $200m-$500m category delivered the highest weighted average return of 2.6%.
Capital flows continue to be negative in July, but at a much lower level of both redemptions and subscriptions – net outflows came in at $2.7bn, driven by redemptions of $9bn against subscriptions of $6.3bn.
Funds based in the Americas saw net redemptions of $2.4bn in July, with Asia seeing net outflows of $800m and Europe bucking the trend, with a low level of net subscriptions at $500m.
