Following six straight months of negative returns, the Credit Suisse/Tremont Broad Hedge Fund Index posted a gain of 1.09% in January. A new Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index monthly commentary provides insight.
A new monthly publication from Credit Suisse/Tremont offers a 360 degree review of the events that shaped hedge fund performance over the previous month. The report includes:
– A summary of global markets and an overview of hedge fund performance for January
– In-depth commentary on individual hedge fund sectors
– Hedge fund return dispersion statistics for each strategy
Convertible Arbitrage strategies outperformed all others in January — posting 5.72% returns — due to three major factors: An appetite for risk returned to the financial markets, corporate bond spreads improved, and the emergence of crossover buyers.
Although convertibles were one of the worst performing strategies in 2008, we believe the strategy could rebound strongly in 2009 if conditions in the credit markets continue to improve.
Dedicated Short Bias managers also performed positively in January with a return of 3.69%, as short positions benefited from falling equity prices.
The commentary also notes that the hedge fund landscape going into 2009 looks considerably different than it did 12-months ago based on the Credit Suisse/ Tremont sector allocation.
For example, Long/Short Equity was the largest sector in the Broad Index, representing nearly 30% of all hedge funds in January 2009. That sector has shrunk and now represents 23% of the Index.
L.D.