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Globe and Mail - Joe E. Lewis, the late American nightclub comic and inveterate horse player, once quipped: "I hope I break even. I need the money." That could very well become a mantra in the hedge fund world, where even the best and brightest of managers with impressive track records have been suffering through some of their worst results in years.
In the first three months of this year alone, 170 funds in the United States went out of business, and that was before things got really bad. Globally, hedge funds ended the first half with their most dismal performance in a decade. And then came the selloff in resource stocks, which brought misery to commodity funds, one of the few bright spots earlier in the year. July ended up being the worst month for futures in more than five years.
Scotia Capital’s Canadian hedge fund index, a useful measure of performance, was off 8.6 per cent on an asset-weighted basis last month, bested by both the gloom-laden TSX composite and S&P 500 indexes.
In the first three months of this year alone, 170 funds in the United States went out of business, and that was before things got really bad. Globally, hedge funds ended the first half with their most dismal performance in a decade. And then came the selloff in resource stocks, which brought misery to commodity funds, one of the few bright spots earlier in the year. July ended up being the worst month for futures in more than five years.
Scotia Capital’s Canadian hedge fund index, a useful measure of performance, was off 8.6 per cent on an asset-weighted basis last month, bested by both the gloom-laden TSX composite and S&P 500 indexes.
Globe and Mail - GMP Securities enjoyed a solid debut with its new and much-scrutinized hedge fund.
GMP Diversified Alpha Fund, a multi-strategy fund launched last year by the investment dealer, published its first set of performance numbers Thursday as part of the parent income trust’s financial results.
The fund, which is run in part by GMP’s star stock trader and vice chairman Michael Wekerle, posted a 6.2 per cent return over its first three months of operation, a quarterthat ended June 30. The fund has $196-million of assets.
Over the same period, the benchmark Scotia Capital Canadian hedge fund index returned 5.93 per cent over the same period on an equal weighted basis, and 9.93 per cent on an asset weighted basis that puts more emphasis on performance at the larger domestic hedge funds.
GMP’s venture into the hedge fund world has drawn attention on the Street because of Mr. Wekerle’s dual role as both a part of the hedge fund team and head of the dealer’s equity desk.
Reuters Singapore - Investors almost halved the money they put into Asia-focused hedge funds in the second quarter compared to the first three months of the year as a selloff in stocks hurt appetite for risky assets, data showed.
Asia-focused hedge funds received a net $530 million (268 million pounds) from investors in the April-June quarter, down from $1 billion in the first quarter, Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research said in a statement released late on Thursday.
Asian hedge funds grew by approximately $200 million to $100.48 billion, up just 0.25 percent from the first quarter, as inflows were mostly offset by a decline of nearly $320 million due to poor performance.
Reuters - Investors almost halved the money they put into Asia-focused hedge funds in the second quarter compared to the first three months of the year as a selloff in stocks hurt appetite for risky assets, data showed.
Asia-focused hedge funds received a net $530 million from investors in the April-June quarter, down from $1 billion in the first quarter, Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research said in a statement released late on Thursday.
Asian hedge funds grew by approximately $200 million to $100.48 billion, up just 0.25 percent from the first quarter, as inflows were mostly offset by a decline of nearly $320 million due to poor performance.
"Asian hedge fund investors reacted to continuing market volatility by adjusting allocations opportunistically to those regional markets that had posted sharp year-to-date losses," said Kenneth Heinz, president of Hedge Fund Research.
Bloomberg - Hedge funds turned in their worst first-half performance in almost two decades as the collapse of subprime-mortgage bonds and rising commodity prices pushed stocks to the brink of a bear market.
Hedge funds declined by an average 0.7 percent in June, bringing the year-to-date loss to 0.75 percent, data compiled by Hedge Fund Research Inc. show. It’s the worst start to a year since the Chicago-based firm began tracking returns in 1990. The $1.9 trillion industry has posted one losing year, in 2002, when funds fell 1.45 percent amid the 23 percent decline by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Managers attracted a net $16.5 billion during the first three months of the year, down from $30.4 billion in the fourth quarter, Hedge Fund Research reported. Investors have become less tolerant of losses and are shifting assets to traders who have shown they can thrive in turbulent markets, said Antonio Munoz, who runs EIM Management USA in New York, which farms out $15 billion to hedge funds.
“We don’t see investors pulling the plug across the board and putting their capital into cash,” Munoz said.
Independent- Hedge funds turned in their worst first-half performance in almost two decades because of the credit crunch and the onset of a bear market in stocks.
Hedge funds declined by an average 0.7pc in June, bringing the year-to-date loss to 0.75pc, data compiled by Hedge Fund Research show. It’s the worst start to a year since the Chicago-based firm began tracking returns in 1990. The $1.9trillion (€1.2tn) industry has posted one losing year, in 2002, when funds fell 1.45pc.
"Equity markets have made for an incredibly difficult environment,” said Mark Dampier, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers in Bristol, who tracks the money-management industry.
Managers attracted a net $16.5bn during the first three months of the year, down from $30.4bn in the fourth quarter, Hedge Fund Research reported. Investors have become less tolerant of losses and are shifting assets to traders who have shown they can thrive in turbulent markets, said Antonio Munoz, who runs EIM Management USA in New York, which farms out $15bn to hedge funds.
BusinessWeek- Assets invested in Asia-focused hedge-fund strategies fell about 10% in the first quarter of 2008, with industry assets under management plummeting from $110 billion to $100 billion, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research.
Net allocations to Asia-only strategies also decreased in the first three months of the year, although net allocations to global emerging-market strategies, which include Asian markets, increased by $1 billion.
On a global basis, the hedge-fund industry attracted a net of $16.5 billion in the first quarter (versus receiving $194 billion throughout 2007), with total capital under management virtually flat over the quarter at $1.9 trillion.