Hedge Funds Outperform Indexes In February

Post by NeilMc on April 3, 2009 · Under Australian Economy, Equities, Wealth Management, banking, investments · Comment

Australian based hedge funds have outperformed their benchmark ASX 200 index and US S&P 500 for the second consecutive month according to data by form an industry watchdog.

The latest data released by market research firm Australian Fund Monitors (AFM) suggests that the Australian hedge fund community collectively lost 1.6 per cent last month, erasing all the gains made during January and producing a 1.04 per cent loss year to date.

Hedge funds are investment funds for high net worth individuals and institutional investors such as pension funds, which speculate on assets prices both rising and falling, and can take both long and short positions and invest in financial derivatives.

The loss by Hedge Funds also known as alternative investments comes against a backdrop of a 9.23 per cent decline in the first couple of months of 2009

“The results, while not universally positive, again showed that in times of adversity hedge funds, far from being the speculative vehicles they are frequently portrayed as, provided diversity and significantly better risk profiles than equities alone, said AFM chief executive Chris Gosselin.

The AFM data is based on a survey of about 220 absolute return and hedge fund managers.

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