Investing March 17, 2005

Hedge Funds Beating S&P for First Two Months of 2005

March 17, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Two months into 2005, hedge funds have outperformed the S&P 500, according to industry-watcher HedgeFund.net.
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Hedge funds were up 1.7% in February, according to the universe tracked by the company; from January 1, hedge funds are 1.37%. By comparison, the S&P 500 is up 0.69% on the year.

Emerging market strategies performed the best in the month of February, posting average gains of almost 4%; convertible arbitrage performed the worst, posting 0.55% losses on the month. Across the board, however, most hedge fund strategies were in the black for February, while most were in the red the month before.

Year-to-date, emerging market strategies are up 6.1%. Managed futures are the worst year-to-date performers, losing an average of 3.16%.

Gains were spread wide across hedge funds, however: the top 25% of hedge funds posted 2.31% gains on the month, while the bottom 25% posted gains of only 0.19%.

The HedgeFund.net-PerTrac Universe is comprised of those funds that are featured on PerTrac Online – a tool used by hedge funds that are registered with the Web site. It has roughly 4,300 hedge funds in the universe.

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