New York (HedgeCo.Net) – BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research reported today that the hedge fund industry took in $250 million (0.01% of assets) in October, recovering from outflows of $6.8 billion (0.2% of assets) in September.
“Hedge fund inflows have slowed dramatically in the second half of this year,” said Sol Waksman, president and founder of BarclayHedge. “Inflows since July have averaged $2.9 billion monthly, down from $13.8 billion monthly in the first half of 2014.”
Industry assets stood at $2.37 trillion in October, down slightly from September’s six-year high of $2.38 trillion, according to estimates based on data from 3,500 funds. Assets climbed 15.8% in the past 12 months and are just 2.9% below the all-time high of $2.44 trillion in June 2008.
The monthly TrimTabs/BarclayHedge Hedge Fund Flow Report noted that the hedge fund industry lost 0.3% in October, improving on September’s loss of 1.3% but underperforming the S&P 500, which gained 2.4%.
“Equity Long Bias funds performed best in October, gaining 0.4%, while Emerging Markets funds had the strongest inflows at $2.6 billion,” said Waksman.
The monthly TrimTabs/BarclayHedge Survey of Hedge Fund Managers finds that hedge fund managers’ optimism on U.S. stocks hit the highest level this year in November, while bearish sentiment fell to a seven-month low. Bearish sentiment on the U.S. Dollar Index dropped to the lowest level since January 2011. Sentiment on 10-year U.S. Treasuries remained mostly neutral.
