The Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index is up 3.23% for January 2006, which is the highest monthly return since August 2000, according to Oliver Schupp, president of the Credit Suisse Tremont Index LLC and senior member of the Credit Suisse Funds and Alternative Solutions Group.
“The global appetite for risk and strong equity markets pushed the Long/Short sector up 4.18% and the emerging markets sector up 5.76% for January 2006,” Schupp said. “Convertible arbitrage managers reported a performance of 2.75%, the strongest in 3 years. The managers profited from higher valuations and increased inefficiencies after a year of numerous fund closures in 2005.”
Event-driven hedge fund managers had one of their strongest months in recent history, taking advantage of a tightened credit spread throughout the month and an increase in announced mergers and acquisitions after the start of the new year, said Robert I. Schulman, CEO of Tremont Capital Management, Inc.
“Global Macro managers started the year strong, reporting 3.37% for January. They were able to generate returns through long equity exposure as well as from short positions in European and Japanese bonds.”