January was a very good month for hedge funds.
Lifted by a strong stock market, hedge fund performance was up 3.65% for the month, according to Hedge Fund Research. That beat the 2.55% returned by the S&P 500 over the same period.
Among other gauges, the MSCI Hedge Invest Index rose by 2.29% in January, while the Standard & Poor’s HFI Index posted a preliminary 2% return for January, almost as much as the annualized return of 2.28% last year. The differing returns reflect the indices’ varied components and methodologies.