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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - Morningstar presented their monthly analysis of hedge fund performance for November and asset flows through October.
"Hedge funds have a long path to recovery ahead of them," said Hedge Fund Analyst Nadia Papagiannis. "November was a better month than the last two, mostly because hedge funds hoarded cash, but they are still losing money on their investments and facing the ongoing challenge of funding investor redemptions."
Hedge funds slid again in November, as the Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index lost 2.5% for the month and 23.7% year to date. Hedged against the appreciating U.S. dollar, the asset-weighted Morningstar Composite Hedge Fund with MSCI Index fared better dropping only 0.8%. Hedge funds charge performance fees on any new profits earned, but those have been scarce since November 2007.
Compounding the funds’ pain, investors have responded to the lackluster performance by pulling more than $20 billion in October, which accounts for the bulk of the $29 billion withdrawn over the last 12 months from hedge funds.
Hedge funds of funds performed better than multi-strategy hedge funds this month, as the Morningstar Hedge Fund of Funds and the Morningstar Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund Indexes dropped 2.3% and 3.0% respectively.
November returns and October asset flows for the Morningstar Hedge Fund Indexes are based on funds that reported as of Dec. 16, 2008. Returns for the Morningstar Hedge Fund Indexes with MSCI are based on funds that reported November performance as of Dec. 14, 2008.
As announced in September 2008, Morningstar is also now calculating hedge fund indexes by applying the MSCI Hedge Fund Index Methodology and Hedge Fund Classification Standard to Morningstar’s hedge fund database. These indexes demonstrate the performance of hedge funds to investors who have hedged their currency exposure back into U.S. dollars. The MSCI Hedge Fund Index Methodology classifies hedge funds by investment process, geography, and asset class.
But the news was not all doom and gloom. Once again, the Morningstar Global Trend and Global Non-trend Hedge Fund Indexes performed well, funds in these categories experienced outflows during October, global trend funds saw overall inflows of $9 billion for the first 10 months of the year, more than every other category. Emerging markets fared poorly, as dwindling demand for commodities depressed the equities in commodity-based economies. The Morningstar Emerging Markets Hedge Fund Index lost 5.1% in November.
The Morningstar Developed Asia Hedge Fund Index’s relatively small loss of 0.3% was bolstered by the Bank of Japan’s interest rate cut and stimulus package announcement. The Morningstar Japan with MSCI Hedge Fund Index gained 0.5%. U.S. equity hedge funds performed among the worst this month, small capitalization equities took a beating in November, but most hedge funds hedged, as the Morningstar US Small Cap Equity Hedge Fund Index ended down only 4.6%, as compared to the Russell 2000 Index’s almost 12% decline.
The Morningstar Security Selection with MSCI Hedge Fund Index, with component funds that also take directional bets on equities, lost 2.7%. For the year to date through October, directional Europe and U.S. equity funds experienced significantly more outflows than other categories. Funds that kept a lid on market exposure fared relatively well this month. U.S. Treasuries across the board showed the largest monthly gain in decades amid poor economic data, fears of deflation, and a government plan to buy U.S. mortgage-backed securities.
The Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index, a global, broadly representative benchmark for hedge fund performance, has return history from January 2003.
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Bloomberg - Komodo Capital Management Pte’s hedge fund outperformed rivals as Chief Investment Officer Angus Cameron employed strategies he developed during Japan’s slump in the 1990s to profit from the global financial turmoil.
The Singapore-based firm’s KC Asia Fund has gained 8.3 percent this year, Cameron said yesterday. Other macro hedge funds, which seek to profit from broad economic trends by trading currencies, bonds and stocks in the region, lost an average of 6.7 percent in the first nine months of the year, according to Eurekahedge, a Singapore-based data provider.
“We traded through Japan during the 1990s,” Cameron, 37, said in an interview. “The strategies that worked then will work now.”
Government bonds “should do well in most markets” as policy makers shift their focus to supporting growth from fighting inflation, Cameron said. Central banks from Australia to South Korea have joined a global effort to cut interest rates, following the year-long credit-market seizure that has toppled some of Wall Street’s biggest investment banks, including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
TIMES - The ups and downs of the Dow are making Wall Street’s so-called "smart money" look dopey. Hedge funds lost nearly $300 billion due to bad investments in the first nine months of the year, according to an analysis of return data by TIME.com.
If the losses stand it would be by far the worst year for these funds, which are unregulated and open only to high-net worth investors, since their returns began being tracked in the mid-1970s. "It’s not going to be a good year," says Peter Laurelli, vice-president at HedgeFund.net. "We can be pretty sure of that."
The calculation does not include gains some of the funds may have made in Monday’s rally, but analysts say that won’t be nearly enough to erase the hundreds of billions of dollars the funds are down. "The losses should concern every investor because these are supposed to be the smartest guys out there," says Charles Gradante, who is the co-founder of hedge fund advisory firm Hennesse Group. "If they can’t manage their investments how is average person with a 401(k) supposed to cope?"
Bloomberg - The Artradis AB2 fund, run by Singapore’s biggest hedge-fund firm, gained 4.96 percent in September, when Asian equities had their worst month in 18 years, two people with knowledge of its performance said.
The $2.2 billion hedge fund, managed by the firm’s co- founders Stephen Diggle and Richard Magides, returned 20.64 percent in the first nine months of the year, the people said, asking not to be identified because details are private. Asia’s hedge-fund average returns fell 16.2 percent this year, the region’s worst annual performance, according to Singapore-based data provider Eurekahedge.
Hedge funds such as those run by Artradis Fund Management Pte, which manages more than $4 billion, tend to outperform when markets are falling because they trade on volatility, which increases when prices decline. The 30-day volatility of the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index, a gauge of the average fluctuation of 990 stocks, has almost tripled to 55 percent, from 21 percent at the end of August.
New York Times - Hedge funds’ annus horribilis is getting worse. The average fund, after losing nearly 5 percent in the first eight months of the year, was down an additional 7 percent in September, according to Hedge Fund Research. Many other factors are making life difficult for fund managers, too. An industry shakeout looks inevitable.
At the end of last month, many funds were expecting more than the usual level of requests from jittery investors to pull cash out. It’s hard to plan longer-term trades if your investment funds might suddenly be snatched away. And a flood of redemptions can force the sale of assets, hurting remaining investors — one reason that fund managers sometimes block withdrawals.
On top of that, hedge funds used to bolster returns with lots of borrowed money. Now that has become a scarce commodity. The ability to bet on price declines has also suffered, thanks to partial or complete bans on selling stocks short in markets around the world.
Reuters - More hedge funds have called it quits worldwide in the first half of 2008 than a year ago, as tumbling markets and finicky investors take a heavy toll on the $1.9 trillion industry, new data show.
Liquidations rose by 15 percent during the first six months of 2008 when 350 funds closed their doors compared with 303 a year earlier, according to numbers released by Hedge Fund Research (HFR) on Thursday.
"This year, the industry will likely see more funds shut down than start up," said Phil Duff, who runs Duff Capital Advisors.
In the first eight months of the year, hedge funds lost an average 4.83 percent, making for the worst returns in a decade.
Wealth Bulletin - Geneva-based Union Bancaire Privée emerged as the largest fund of hedge funds provider, replacing UBS Global Asset Management at the top, with $56.8bn, according to the InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club.
Funds of hedge funds showed the first signs of an asset slowdown in the first half of this year, but still managed a net inflow of nearly $50bn despite turbulent markets and lacklustre returns, according to a FINalternatives report.
As per the latest survey of the InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club, funds of funds recorded an average negative return of 1.25% for the first six months of the year, and grew their overall assets by only about 4.5%, compared to 17% during the corresponding period last year.
Reuters - Some of the world’s biggest hedge funds suffered a dramatic drop in assets in the first half of 2008 as financial markets tumbled and many investors asked for their money back, according to a survey released on Monday.
Renaissance Technologies, which runs one of the world’s most successful hedge funds that also charges some of the world’s highest fees, saw assets under management shrink by 14.71 percent during the first six months of the year. The firm, run by former mathematics professor Jim Simons, managed $29 billion at the end of June, according to a survey conducted by magazine Absolute Return.
While total assets may have shrunk, its $8 billion Medallion fund soared 48 percent at the end of July, net of fees, the New York Post reported, citing people familiar with the returns.
Farallon Capital Management’s assets declined 8.3 percent to $33 billion, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management saw assets fall 7.9 percent to $26.9 billion.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - Venus Capital Management, Inc. has launched the Venus Index Plus Fund. The general objective of the Fund is to outperform the S&P CNX Nifty India Index without changing the weights in the Index.
Venus Capital, after conducting a detailed analysis of India-dedicated hedge funds, found that most India funds, both inside and outside of India, underperformed the S&P CNX Nifty India index on a risk-adjusted basis. They have high Beta with a low Sharpe ratio. This became even more evident this year when the Indian markets dropped approximately 40% and a typical India fund lost 40-55% in the first six months of the year. Venus has segregated Alpha from Beta and has products for investors seeking either. However, Venus feels that “2 and 20” fees should not be paid to obtain Beta and hence, have launched the flat fee Index fund.
The Index fund is engineered to track and outperform the benchmark Indian Index without changing the weights of the Index constituents. It will be available in unlevered, 1x, 2x levered and short versions with daily liquidity, enabling institutional investors to time the market and take advantage of their macro views and also use as a hedge against exposure to long biased India managers.
Venus Capital expects this product to outperform the S&P CNX Nifty India index since the S&P CNX Nifty India Index futures typically roll at a discount to fair value of the underlying S&P CNX Nifty India index on a monthly basis and the left over cash (as futures require only 25% margin) can be deployed in short-term instruments.
The fund offers beta exposure to one of the fastest growing economies, in a cost efficient manner compared to traditional mutual funds and hedge funds. “We do not believe investors should pay 2 and 20 fees for Beta” said Vik, CEO of Venus Capital Management, Inc. Venus Capital has been in business since 1994 and is the oldest India-focused hedge fund company. The founder and CEO, Vik Mehrotra, has over 20 years of investment experience and is assisted by over 20 analysts and traders.
Investors can request a private placement memorandum for the Venus (India) Index Plus Fund by visiting the manager’s website. The fund is open to accredited and qualified investors only and the minimum initial investment amount is $1,000,000.
Venus Capital Management, Inc. was founded in 1994. The company was registered with the Securities & Exchange Commission in the United States as a Registered Investment Advisory company in 2000. The firm manages wealth for several family offices and institutions with an emphasis on increased allocations to Asia in a risk averse manner.
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Reuters UK - Balyasny Asset Management LP recruited more than 30 money managers and analysts from competing hedge funds in the first eight months of the year, exceeding its total for all of 2007.
“We have been aggressively looking for talent, and in a year like this, there are a lot more candidates out there,” said Barry Colvin, vice chairman of the Chicago-based firm, which oversees $2.5 billion. Hires came from New York-based Satellite Asset Management LP and Magnetar Capital LLC in Chicago, which have both lost money this year.
While more than 200 hedge funds shut down this year, Balyasny, SAC Capital Advisors LLC and Citadel Investment Group LLC are taking advantage of the industry’s worst performance in a decade to go on a hiring spree. Hedge funds, diminished by a scarcity of credit and enfeebled stock markets, fell by an average 4.7 percent as of Aug. 28, according to data compiled by Hedge Fund Research Inc. in Chicago.
Sixty-one percent of the 2,795 funds managing more than $100 million that are in New York-based HedgeFund.net’s database are losing money in 2008.
Bloomberg - Balyasny Asset Management LP recruited more than 30 money managers and analysts from competing hedge funds in the first eight months of the year, exceeding its total for all of 2007.
“We have been aggressively looking for talent, and in a year like this, there are a lot more candidates out there,” said Barry Colvin, vice chairman of the Chicago-based firm, which oversees $2.5 billion. Hires came from New York-based Satellite Asset Management LP and Magnetar Capital LLC in Chicago, which have both lost money this year.
While more than 200 hedge funds shut down this year, Balyasny, SAC Capital Advisors LLC and Citadel Investment Group LLC are taking advantage of the industry’s worst performance in a decade to go on a hiring spree. Hedge funds, diminished by a scarcity of credit and enfeebled stock markets, fell by an average 4.7 percent as of Aug. 28, according to data compiled by Hedge Fund Research Inc. in Chicago.
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.