Hedge funds up in January

Feb 9, 2009

Hedge funds across the broader spectrum report slim gains in January, but emerging market funds have another down month.

Hedge Fund Research's weighted composite index eked out a gain of 0.39% in January 2009, having recorded an 18.7% fall for the whole of 2008.

Nearly all strategies monitored by the research outfit finished in positive territory, led by fixed income convertible arbitrage with a 5.85% gain. Asset backed fixed income and energy and basic materials strategies also finished with gains of over 3% apiece.

These rises represent something of a bounce-back from 2008, as these strategies were the pair that brought up the rear of the 20 sub-strategies monitored by Hedge Fund Research with 33.6% and 38.5% annual declines respectively.

The only declines for strategies during January were equity hedge, which fell 0.29%, and quantitative directional, which was down by five basis points.

The funds of funds index was up 0.98% for January, having finished 2008 with a 20.97% fall for the year.

For HFR's emerging market indices, January was not such a good month, with the overall index falling 1.72%. Asia ex-Japan fell by 2.46%, being kept off the bottom of the performance table only by the Russia/Eastern Europe index, which was down 4.17%.