Dow Jones: April Bad for All, Worst for Convert Arb

By Staff Writer

May 09, 2005 at 08:00 PM

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NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com)–Everyone took a soaking from the showers of April. The returns from last month were negative for each of the six hedge fund categories tracked by Dow Jones indexes.

The convertible arbitrage strategy lost the most (3.73 %), followed by equity long/short (U.S.), event-driven, merger arbitrage and equity market neutral, which lost 1.9%, 1.01%, 0.92% and 0.47%, respectively.

In this context, distressed securities might claim something of a victory at having lost the least, a mere 0.31%.

On a year-to-date basis, too, convert arb has the worst of the numbers from Dow Jones Indexes and STOXX Ltd. It has lost 6.89% in 2005. Equity long/short (U.S.) has lost 3.49%.

Nonetheless, some of the hedge fund strategies outperformed more traditional investment vehicles. The Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 posted a 2.21% loss for April on a float-adjusted basis, or 2.26% on a full-cap basis. The broad equity markets measured by that index have lost 4.38% in 2005 to date (4.59% full cap).

A float-adjusted calculation excludes restricted shares.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones corporate bond index was up 1.1% for the month, reducing its year-to-date losses to 0.19%.

Contact Bob Keane with questions or comments at: [email protected].

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