The Barclay/Global HedgeSource Hedge Fund Index was down 1.51 percent in April, following March’s decrease of 0.83%.
“Although Equity Long/Short funds and Equity Long Biased funds, which represent almost one-third of hedge fund industry assets, lost money in April,” says Sol Waksman, president of The Barclay Group, “these sectors continue to outperform the broader market sectors represented by the S&P 500 Index and the Russell 2000 Growth Index. Many hedge strategies were also hurt by a widening of credit spreads as investors demanded higher returns for holding riskier assets.”
Overall, 16 of 18 hedge fund strategies lost money in April. Convertible Arbitrage dropped 3.71 percent, and is down 7.13 percent for the year. The Technology Index fell 3.03 percent in April, down 5.76 percent for the year.
Only two of Barclay’s indexes showed gains for April. Equity Short Bias gained 3.56 percent, and is up 11.52 percent for the first four months of 2005. Fixed Income Arbitrage gained 0.49 percent.