Investors allocated about USD14.12 billion in new money to hedge funds in January and pushed overall hedge fund industry AUM to a new record of USD3.366 trillion, according to eVestment’s Hedge Fund Industry Asset Flow Report for January 2018.
Macro funds, long/short equity and directional credit strategies were big winners among primary strategies in January, while multi-strategy funds and event driven funds saw AUM fall by USD3.34 billion and USD1.73 billion respectively.
China-focused funds received among the largest new allocations and largest redemptions to begin 2018. Investors appear less enamoured by equity exposure to the country and allocations were concentrated within Chinese debt-focused strategies.
The US as a targeted investment region continues to see negative investor sentiment. While there are a small handful of very successful quantitative equity strategies receiving new allocations, there are many long/short equity and event driven funds which have seen outflows.