Investing November 19, 2003

Hedge Fund Assets Increase 3.3% in Q3

November 19, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Assets under management in the hedge fund industry rose 3.3% to an aggregate $687.5 billion in the third quarter.
Reported by

Merger-arbitrage funds added $703 million in new assets and fund-of-fund hedge funds tacked on another $4.4 billion in new investments.   With the gain, fund-of-funds now control roughly a third of all the money invested in hedge funds – $225.2 billion, according to a Reuters report.

Much of the asset gain was performance based as Hedge Fund Research Inc’s (HFRI) Fund-Weight Composite Index rose 4.32% on the emerging markets, stock, commodities, futures and currency positions.   Leading this group was emerging markets gaining 10.28% over the past three months after being up 13.0% in the second quarter (See HFR: Hedge Fund Assets Increase $47 Billion In Q2 ).

Other increases were noted in the HFRI Distressed Investments, up 5.5%, while the short-selling index was off 5.3%.   

HFRI’s Quarterly Industry Report for the Third Quarter 2003 is available at   www.hedgefundresearch.com .

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