Sunday Times South Africa – You can cover your bets with the better funds, but don’t expect to beat the equity market when the bull is really running.
The winning investment managers at this week’s third annual Symmetry Hedge Fund Awards showed their mettle by beating the returns of the JSE over the past year.
But the median return was more pedestrian and showed that hedge funds won’t always beat the market in a strong bull run.
The best return for the year came from the Oryx Segregated Fund, managed by Heiko van Wyngaarden. It delivered a return of 46.5% in 2006 – 5% better than the JSE.
This was in the long-short equity category of funds which is still the largest category in terms of the number of managers and assets under management.
The category was also the best category in terms of returns for the third year running, with the average funds giving a return of just over 27% – notably less than the JSE’s return .
Best market- neutral fund was the Stanlib Quasar Fund, which delivered a return of 18%. The average market-neutral fund did 12.4%.
