After a tough start to 2017, macro UCITS strategies began to recover during the summer months. In line with the broader hedge fund market, performance in this category was led by CTA/Managed Futures funds progressing 1.06 per cent during the month of August, still showing -2.19 per cent YTD losses.
Also the relatively smaller group of Currency Arbitrage UCITS funds showed positive performance for the first time in 2017, advancing 0.47 per cent .
Tracking the average fund performance, the LuxHedge Global Alternative UCITS Index continues to grow at moderate pace with a performance of +0.16 per cent during August (+1.32 per cent YTD). Alternative UCITS Fund of Funds tend to correlate strongly with the global index and advanced 0.01 per cent (+1.53 per cent YTD).
Performance of Equity Hedge strategies was mixed during August with the Equity Long/Short Europe UCITS index declining 0.22 per cent (+1.97 per cent YTD). Also Event Driven and Merger Arbitrage funds lost ground during the month -0.23 per cent (+4.47 per cent YTD), the first decline since October 2016. Other Equity Hedge indices advanced during August with the Equity Market Neutral UCITS index gaining 0.33 per cent (2.23 per cent YTD) and Equity Long/Short US progressing 0.91 per cent (+5.61 per cent YTD). For Asia oriented long/short funds, the trend of strong performance continued with the Equity Long/Short Asia UCITS index gaining 1.86 per cent during August (+18.20 per cent YTD).
In line with July results, Fixed Income Arbitrage and Multi Strategy funds continued to perform relatively flat in August: Fixed Income Arbitrage UCITS -0.02 per cent (+1.34 per cent YTD) and Multi Strategy UCITS +0.12 per cent (+0.50 per cent YTD). The smallest category of Commodity Arbitrage funds recorded a firm advance during August with 1.77 per cent (YTD +0.63 per cent), recuperating the losses since the start of 2017.
Alternative UCITS funds as a whole continued to gain in popularity with investors and asset inflow remains strong and consistent. Total Assets Under Management have reached EUR442 billion by the end of August, another monthly increase of 1.0 per cent versus last month.
