<body.content> <block> <p>NEW YORK, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ — August hedge fund performance, as measured by the broad nine-strategy Standard & Poor’s Hedge Fund Index(S&P HFI), ended August positive with a 0.51% return.</p> <p>According to Standard & Poor’s, most of August’s gain was a result of the 1.69%, gain in theDirectional/Tactical sector which includes long/short equity, managed futures and macro strategies. Gains in the sector were led by strong performance of Macro and Long/Short Equitystrategies.</p> <p>In the Macro strategy, bets on energy, particularly unleaded gas, profited as prices appreciated strongly during the early part of the month. In addition, positioningin anticipation of falling interest rates in Japan benefited managers as global investors began to regain confidence in the Japanese economy.</p> <p>The Long/Short Equity strategy showedgains, as managers were able to capture upside performance while in most cases adding alpha on the short side as well.</p> <p>The positive gains in the Directional/Tactical sector werepartially offset by losses in all three strategies within the Arbitrage sector down .84% for the month. Convertible Arbitrage in particular suffered losses due in large part to a contraction invaluations across the lower premium section of the convert market.</p> <p style=”pre” id=”pre1″> As of the end of August, the S&P HFI year-to-date return was 6.86%.
S&P Hedge Fund Index </p> <p>The S&P Hedge Fund Index is designed to be both investable and broadly representative of the investment opportunities available in the hedge fund marketplace. It comprises nine distinct hedge fund investment strategies grouped into three broad style categories-Arbitrage, Event-Driven and Directional/Tactical. Forty institutional quality managers currently comprise the S&P Hedge Fund Index. Its values are calculated and published daily by Standard & Poor’s on its website <a>http://www.standardandpoors.com/</a>. More information about the structure, design and constituents of the S&P Hedge Fund Index is also available in the S&P Indices area of the website.</p> <p style=”pre” id=”pre2″> S&P Hedge Fund Index Structure
S&P Arbitrage Index S&P Event-Driven Index S&P Directional/Tactical
Index
Equity Market Neutral Distressed Long/Short Equity
Fixed Income Arbitrage Merger Arbitrage Managed Futures
Convertible Arbitrage Special Situations Macro
About Standard & Poor’s </p> <p>Standard & Poor’s is a leader in providing highly valued financial data, analytical research and investment and credit opinions to the global capital markets. Among the company’s many products are the S&P Global 1200, the first real-time, global equity index, the S&P 500, the premier U.S. portfolio index, and credit ratings on more than 220,000 securities and funds. With more than 5,000 employees located in 18 countries, Standard & Poor’s is an integral part of the world’s financial architecture. Additional information is available at <a>http://www.standardandpoors.com/</a>. </p> <datasource>Standard & Poor’s</datasource> </block> <block class=”contact”> <p>CONTACT: Lynn Cohn, Communications, +1-212-438-1650, or Justin Dew,<br/>Portfolio Services, +1-212-438-1737, both of Standard & Poor’s</p> </block> <block class=”website”> <p>Web site: <a>http://www.standardandpoors.com/</a> </p> </block> </body.content>
