Overall, hedge funds had generally positive performance numbers since January 1. May numbers, when isolated, told a much different story.
The Equity Market Neutral Strategy hedge fund is not supposed to reflect stock market performances, but it dropped 0.3% in May after eight months of steady gains, according to the latest numbers from the EDHEC-Risk Institute, the research arm of the EDHEC Business School.
Similarly, the S&P 500 registered a loss of 1.13%, its first since August 2010. Poor performances among risky bonds and a widening credit spread caused the Convertible Arbitrage strategy to drop .03%. The CTA Global strategy was down 3.3%, and offset April profits.
Overall, hedge funds had generally positive year-to-date performance numbers since January 1. May numbers, when isolated, told a different story. Of the 13 strategies in the EDHEC-Risk Institute’s roundup, only two had gains. The fixed-income arbitrage approach had a gain of 0.33%, and the short selling strategy was up 1.42%.
Overall, the Funds of Funds strategy registered a negative 1.14%, a little better than the S&P, which was down 1.35%.
