Industry Benchmark Performance Equity returns through October are running 3% to 11%, with the best being the long equity portfolios. That makes sense when the market is near or at all time highs. Still, the major equity index ETFs have returned 17% to 28%, so the managers are only returning half of the overall market gains. In all fairness, a return exceeding 10% each year is very satisfying … [Read more...]

Industry Benchmark Performance Fractional gains for equities funds, moderate losses for futures, larger for trend-following systems. Equities have been exceptionally volatile given both economic and political news, although the economic news, the lowest manufacturing numbers released at the end of September, seems to have had the most affect. Futures, which normally profit from interest rate … [Read more...]

Industry Benchmark Performance Due to the holiday weekend, hedge fund postings are slow. There are no fund of funds or multi-strategy results yet showing on Barclays website. What is posted looks good for futures, with the BTOP50 higher by 16.25% for 2019, a very good performance by any standards. Most of the gains are in interest rates, with some added profits in the stronger U.S. dollar … [Read more...]

Industry Benchmark Performance Yet another month of gains, this time spurred on by hopes of the Fed reducing rates. The ¼ point reduction on Wednesday did not satisfy the market, but no sooner than it was announced, traders are looking for another ¼ point. The three benchmark equity index markets are giving investors great returns for the year. Hedge funds and futures are also positive for … [Read more...]

Industry Benchmark Performance Nothing seems to hold the stock market down. If there is bad news, it expects the Fed to lower rates. If good news, everything is fine. Hedge funds are lagging the major index markets but still putting in a respectable performance for the year. Overall CTA performance is also good, although the BTOP50, a more realistic measure, is somewhat lower. Altogether, a lot … [Read more...]

Industry Benchmark Performance A nasty month for most equity programs, but year-to-date returns are still positive. Futures are mixed with smaller losses but smaller 2019 gains. Bonds have had the biggest rally, but it’s not enough to offset all the other uncertainty. Blogs and Recent Publications Find this at the end of this report. We post new interviews and reference new articles each … [Read more...]

Industry Benchmark Performance More small gains for hedge funds, putting the overall index up by 6.35% for 2019, slightly lower than our trend performance. Equity Long, however, is higher by 9.9% for 2019, showing that taking advantage of the upwards bias in stocks pays off. CTA’s search for a trend has some good results, with the BTOP 50 up 4.92% and the SG Trend Index up 7.13%. Both of those … [Read more...]

Industry Benchmark Performance Hedge funds posted fractional gains but are still nicely position for the first quarter. If they can maintain this rate of return, investors will see a good year. CTAs are also gaining slightly, bringing some of the year-to-date returns positive, but not the BTOP50, which we see as the benchmark. Interest rates are the center of profits this year, as expectations of … [Read more...]

Industry Benchmark Performance Early reporting shows that the hedge fund index is lagging the broad market S&P although the long-only programs are tracking about 3% behind. Most of the other equity funds posted modest gains. Futures programs, including ours, continue to search for trends that are not there. Many of the funds broke even for February, a better result than January. We keep … [Read more...]

Industry Benchmark Performance Early reporting shows that hedge funds posted gains in all categories with Equity Long up 4.96% and Multi Strategy up a healthy 9.61%. The benchmark broad index markets also posted very good gains, ranging from up 8% to up 11%. This is all a welcome bounce from lows of more than 20% in many of the sectors, but still well off from the highs. Futures started the … [Read more...]