|
Alternative Markets Update Q1 2019
Hedge Funds Bad performance, pressure for lower fees and redemption constituted the environment that hedge funds faced as they were entering 2019. Despite the negativity in the industry, hedge funds proved themselves resilient and posted their best quarterly performance in a decade. Rally in equity markets was the main driver of the strong performance, but their reluctance to take full long positions in equities led to relative underperformance. Equity strategies are the biggest winners across the different strategies according to data from Preqin with CTAs starting to perform in March after a very disappointing start. |
Although investors continued redeeming from the asset class, the assets under management in the industry rose mainly from capital gains and according to HFR, they reached to almost $3.2 trillion globally. Investors are trying to diversify their hedge fund portfolio exposure by region, sector and strategy.
|
Figure 1. Hedge Fund Strategies Performance 1Q2019, Source: Preqin
Our in-house strategies followed a same pattern during the first quarter of the year, with three out of our top five managers being US Equity focused funds. The manager that invests in high conviction ideas of carefully selected hedge fund managers is enjoying a very strong quarter followed by a US equity strategy focussed on TMT, helthcare and consumer sectors with specific interest in innovation and disruptive technologies. The recent rally in cryptocurrencies led our active altcoin manager to strong performance during February and March, bringing the strategy in our top five table for the first time since 2017. Our activist strategy suffered in March, despite a really strong performance on its underlying portfolio during January and February. Finally, our discretionary global macro strategy had one of its best months ever since inception posting an astonishing +15.27%, mainly from running long duration positions in the US, Australia and New Zealand and mixed duration positioning in Europe, complemented by bond auction trading gains.
Table 1. In-House Strategies Performance 1Q2019, Source: Stone Mountain Capital Research
RSS Feed