Hedge funds were down an average of 0.54% in March, according to the HedgeFund.net-PerTrac Universes. The top 25% of hedge funds gained an average of 0.57%, while the bottom 25% of hedge funds were down an average of 1.45% for the month. Short Bias funds, the month’s top performing strategy, were up an average of 2.15% in March. By comparison, the S&P 500 was down 1.91% during the month.
Through March, the year-to-date average gain for hedge funds was 0.43%. The top 25% of hedge funds gained 2.57% for the year-to-date, while the bottom 25% was down 1.40% over the same period. The S&P 500 is down 2.59% since the beginning of 2005.
Hedge funds included in these calculations were up 1.45% on average in February. The top 25% of hedge funds gained an average of 2.12% in February, while the bottom 25% was up an average 0.37% during the same period.
HedgeFund.net-PerTrac Universes are a feature of PerTrac Online, a hedge fund analytics tool available exclusively to registered users of HedgeFund.net and chart the roughly 4,400 hedge funds that report their performances to the Web site.