NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com)–The Credit Suisse First Boston/Tremont* Hedge Fund Index stayed in positive territory returning just 0.26% for March, while dedicated short-bias managers gained 1.23% and managed futures funds, hard hit by war-related volatility, pulled it down with a 6.1% loss.
Despite the loss, managed futures are still the winner for the year, up 6%. "Over the past 12 months, managed futures funds have returned 31.36%," said Robert Schulman, co-chief executive officer of Tremont Advisers, in a statement.
"Markets were very volatile as the war in Iraq resulted in a reversal of the initial sell-off," said Oliver Schupp, president of Credit Suisse First Boston Tremont Index LLC. "Seven out of 10 hedge fund strategies provided positive returns despite a very difficult trading environment and increased concerns about the economic recovery."
Event-driven funds, consisting of distressed, event-driven multi-strategy and risk arbitrage managers, were the second best-performing category after short biased, gaining 1.01%. Emerging markets were up 1%, convertible arbitrage 0.95%, equity market neutral 0.79%, multi-strategy 0.76%, long/short equity 0.43% and fixed-income arbitrage 0.42%. Global macro went down 0.66% during the month.
Overall the benchmark is up 2.23% for the year. March net asset value was 254.04, representing a 154% return for the 111 months since inception on January 1, 1994.
