MSCI: Hedge Funds 1.5% Better in February

With 64% of the funds reporting, the Composite was in line with the MSCI World Equity Index, which increased 1.7%.  The Composite index performed much better than the World Sovereign Debt Index, which had a return of 0.2% for the month.

The highest February return came from the Directional Trading Index, which reported an increase of 3.5%, with 68% of funds reporting.   Directional Trading focuses on strategies based upon speculating on the direction of market prices of currencies, commodities, equities, and bonds in the futures and cash markets.

Multi-Process Group Index, an index containing funds, which use strategies in which a single investment process does not account for more than 80% of their risk capital, was the second best returning index.   Overall, the index showed an increase of 1.6% on a 61% reporting rate in February.  

The Security Selection Index, those who combine long positions and short sales with the aim of benefiting from their ability in selecting investments while offsetting systematic market risks, was the third best returning index, reporting a 1.3% advancement in its funds, with reports from 64% of funds.

Rounding out the remaining components for February, the Specialist Credit Index, those funds that seek to lend to credit-sensitive issuers, reported an increase of 1.0%, with 54% of funds reporting.   The Relative Value Index was up 0.4% with 66% of funds reporting.   Relative Value is the index focused on spread relationships between pricing components of financial assets or commodities.

The MSCI Hedge Fund Indices are composed of more than 190 indices and the MSCI Hedge Fund Indices now includes over 1,700 hedge funds.