(Bloomberg) -- Hedge funds held up better than global stocks last month, falling an average of 0.1% as equities slumped amid a selloff in emerging-market currencies and signs of weakness in China.
Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates LP gained 1.1% as of Jan. 28 at its Pure Alpha II fund, according to a person familiar with the matter. Global stocks declined 4% for the full month, including reinvested dividends.
“Across most strategies, the last two weeks of the month and the first few trading days of February were challenging,” Anthony Lawler, portfolio manager at $120 billion Swiss asset manager GAM, wrote in a report issued this week. Macro and long- short funds were among categories that declined.
After trailing the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index for the fifth straight year in 2013 as U.S. markets rallied to record levels, hedge funds started 2014 with stronger relative performance. Multistrategy funds rose 1.1%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Two funds from Carlson Capital LP posted gains, a person familiar with the matter said.
The Bloomberg Hedge Funds Aggregate Index is weighted by market capitalization and tracks 2,268 funds, 1,237 of which have reported returns for January. It is down 2% from its July 2007 peak.
Macro managers, who bet on a range of assets to try to profit from macroeconomic trends, fell 0.5% in January. Long-short equity funds, which bet on rising and falling stocks, declined 0.2%.
BLACK DIAMOND
At Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital, which is based in Dallas and manages $8 billion, the Double Black Diamond fund advanced 1.5% last month and the Black Diamond Relative Value Partners fund rose 2.1%, according to the person.
Dalio’s firm oversees about $150 billion and is based in Westport, Connecticut.
Among managers posting declines, Tudor Investment Corp., the $13.7 billion Greenwich, Connecticut-based macro firm run by Paul Tudor Jones, lost 2.1% last month in its Tudor BVI Global fund, said a person familiar with the matter.
Brevan Howard Capital Management LP, whose $40 billion in assets make it Europe’s largest closely held hedge-fund firm, posted a 1.6% decline in its emerging-markets hedge fund, run by Geraldine Sundstrom, according to a person familiar with the St. Helier, Jersey-based firm.
Moore Capital Management LLC, the $14.9 billion New York- based firm run by Louis Moore Bacon, fell 1.1% last month through Jan. 23 in its Moore Global Investments fund, according to a person familiar with the matter. Moore Macro Managers dropped 0.1% during the same period.
Spokesmen for the fund companies declined to comment on the returns.
