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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the lackluster performance by pulling more than $20 billion in October, which accounts for the bulk of the $29 billion withdrawn over the last 12 months from hedge funds.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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Seeking Alpha – If someone was asked to name a fund in the global macro game, undoubtedly Tudor Investment Corp or Moore Capital Management would be among the most frequent responses. The global macro strategy has fared well in the world of hedge funds. Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corp has earned an annualized return of greater than 20% over the span of two decades.
Louis Bacon’s of Moore Capital Management shares the same accolade. And, while they are both down this year, they have fared much better relative to many of their peers and the market indexes in general. Tudor’s flagship fund finds itself -5% for the year, while Moore was -2.9% year-to-date through November as we noted in our November hedge fund performance update.
But, in a never-ending quest for outperformance, Tudor and Bacon want more. And, in order to accomplish that, they see it fit to return to their roots.
Bloomberg – Van Biema Value Partners LLC, led by a former Columbia Business School professor, started a new fund to invest in Asian hedge funds while plunging markets and client withdrawals force rivals to scale back investments.
The Cayman Islands-domiciled van Biema Asia Value Fund Ltd. started on Aug. 1 with about $215 million from one of the company’s institutional clients, van Biema said in a statement issued through PR Newswire yesterday.
“Our niche, the value discipline, has demonstrated, over the long term, significant outperformance over market benchmarks,” the statement said.
Michael van Biema, who taught finance subjects including value investing at Columbia Business School from 1992 before founding his partnership in 2004, started the Asia fund as market declines and the worst hedge fund performance in 19 years force other funds of hedge funds to reduce investments and switch to cash to cope with investor redemptions.
National Post – With strategy-wide net outflows of more than US$31-billion in the third quarter – the largest net capital redemption in the industry’s history – things aren’t looking too good for the hedge fund industry. Its size also fell by US$210-billion, the largest historic quarterly decline in assets, according to a recent report from Hedge Fund Research Inc.
“The current financial crisis presents many similarities to the financial crisis in 1998, certainly as it pertains to the hedge fund industry,” Kenneth Heinz, president of Hedge Fund Research said in a statement. “With losses continuing through October, it appears that 2008 will be the worst year on record for both hedge fund performance and industry asset flows.”
But the outflow figure is much better than the 20% or US$400-billion in redemptions some market commentators had feared, noted Citigroup analysts Haley Tam and Daniel Garrod. And the industry’s total capital still stood at US$1.72-trillion at the end of the quarter, according to the Hedge Fund Research’s base of more than 13,000 funds.
Globe and Mail – Canadian hedge funds posted a brutal 11.2 per cent decline in September, losses that are likely to leave many investors questioning this expensive alternative asset strategy.
The latest installment of the Scotia Capital Canadian Hedge Fund Performance shows these funds outperformed the S&P/TSX composite index last month – it was down 14.7 per cent. But mounting losses on funds sold to investors as market neutral, or absolute return, are going to translate into redemptions.
“September was an extremely challenging month for Canadian hedge fund managers who were largely unable to successfully navigate erratic price movements in stocks and falling energy prices,” said Scotia Capital’s note on the sector’s performance.
“Panic selloffs in an environment driven by fear and uncertainty left major equity markets significantly down at the end of September,” said the investment bank. Obviously, the market swings have become even more violent in October.
Times Online – Who would be in hedge funds right now? Man Group, which has long traded on its name as the world’s largest hedge fund manager, yesterday found the tag something of a liability.
The shares lost 35½p to 398p before a trading update next Monday, making a 46 per cent fall in six weeks, with analysts saying that it is heavily exposed to the whole hedge fund industry through its fund of funds portfolio. Barclays’ index of hedge fund performance shows a 5.6 per cent fall in the year so far to the end of August. Hedgies relied on high borrowing to generate high returns. Most are now being forced to sell positions to cut debt.
Meanwhile, there are growing question marks over Man’s flagship AHL managed futures fund, as its performance has slipped in the past quarter and the short-selling ban may have an impact on its strategy. Man itself is still available to be shorted.
Investec, which cut its target price from 650p to 460p, said: “The hedge fund industry looks set for further negative press, possibly impacting on short-term fund flows at Man, as well as its near-term share price performance.” Kaupthing cut its earnings forecast but held its 630p target pointing out that the AHL fund was still up 3 to 4 per cent in the year so far.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – In a press call with HedgeCo, a global forum for the alternative asset community, Joe Christinat of Thomson Reuters clarified the story of HedgeWorld’s abrupt closing.
Christinat said that HedgeWorld will retain the format that it is in currently. They will continue to offer TASS database, and have the service provider/jobs/conference section as well as publish several newsletters including the alternative advantage newsletter.
Although unable to comment on the rumors of staff changes, Christinat said that they are continuing to follow the Thomson Reuters strategy since the purchase of Reuters by Thomson.
Launched in 1999, HedgeWorld became one of hedge fund industry’s premier information provider for individual and institutional accredited investors and their professional advisers, fund managers and service providers in the global hedge fund industry.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
CNNMoney.com- An equity investors study by Greenwich Associates showed trading volume generated by hedge funds surpassed mutual funds last year and now ranks second only to traditional asset-management shops.
The financial-consulting firm said the influence of hedge funds as a way of generating equity trading has helped Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER) and other firms " solidify" their standing as top U.S. brokers in terms of market share.
"Although the second half of 2007 was something of a wild ride, hedge-fund performance for the year was relatively strong, and from a U.S. equity trading perspective, hedge funds were extremely active," said Greenwich consultant John Feng.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net)- In a summary of hedge fund performance for the second quarter of 2008, Morningstar, Inc. marked June as a bad end to a good quarter. The Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index fell 0.73% during the month, pushing down second-quarter returns to 2.07%. Year to date, the index is up only 0.31%, as hedge funds struggled through poor market conditions.
Overall, hedge funds, including funds of hedge funds, buffered the traditional stock and bond markets over the second quarter. Equity and bond markets saw losses all over the world, while the Morningstar Fund of Hedge Funds Index gained 1.43%. Over the last year, the Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index and the Morningstar Fund of Hedge Funds Index outperformed the major global stock indexes, which experienced double-digit declines (with the exception of emerging markets). Both hedge funds and funds of hedge funds underperformed bond markets, however, over this same period.
“Equity markets suffered steep declines in June,” said Morningstar hedge fund analyst Nadia Van Dalen. “Volatility returned to levels not seen since March, amid fears of recession and rising inflation. Most hedge funds are not immune to these economic shocks, despite what their name might imply.”
There were significant exceptions. Over the last 12 months, the Morningstar Global Trend Hedge Fund Index, which tracks funds that profit from price trends in futures, options and currencies, benefited from the sharp rise in commodity prices, returning over 18% (3.28% in June). Funds in the Morningstar Global Non-trend Hedge Fund Index, those that take macro-economic bets on interest rates and currencies, benefited from the falling dollar and the rising Euro, earning 0.33% in June and more than 12% over the last 12 months. The last 12 months also saw high volatility. Those equity arbitrage funds that specialize in trading volatility helped drive the Morningstar Equity Arbitrage Hedge Fund Index to a gain of more than 8.57% in the last year and 1.12% in June.
Not surprisingly, these top-performing categories have also experienced the most inflows. For the period ending May 31 (asset flow reporting lags performance reporting), hedge fund investors poured more than $6 billion into global trend funds and $2.4 billion into global non-trend funds tracked by Morningstar. On the opposite end of the spectrum, investors fled the U.S. equity and Europe equity hedge funds in the Morningstar database, taking more than $7.7 billion and $6.9 billion out of these categories, respectively.
Morningstar’s hedge fund flow data also show that, through May, assets moved to the Morningstar-rated 4-, and 5-star hedge funds, and redeemed the 1-, 2-, and 3-star hedge funds. Four- and 5-star hedge funds received more than $10 billion in new assets through May, while 1- and 2-star hedge funds bled almost $10 billion in assets over the same period.
Returns of Morningstar’s Broad Category Indexes, indexes that group funds in related categories, highlight that the event-driven funds were the hardest hit. This index includes funds in the Morningstar Corporate Actions and Distressed Securities Categories, which sometimes take bets on depressed or out-of-favor companies, and look for a reversal over the longer-term. These bets may look worse before they look better, given the economic conditions.
Morningstar has approximately 8,500 hedge funds and funds of hedge funds in its database and is is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.
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