Securitized credits funds maintain upward momentum

eVestment estimates total hedge fund assets investing in securitized credit markets reached $139.8 billion at the end of February 2013, $86.5 billion of which is focused primarily on mortgage related securities.

Mortgage focused-strategies took in an estimated $4.36 billion from net investor flows in 2012, and an additional $3.2 billion in the first two months of 2012, bringing estimated AUM targeting mortgage securities to $86.5 billion.

"2013 inflows for MBS funds were due to a surge of investment in February as the group had nearly $1 billion of outflows in January following slight outflows in December 2012," the report states. "Targeted ABS (ex-MBS), and broad securitized credit funds had inflows of USD $4.1 billion in 2012, and have seen more consistent flows in the last three months than their dedicated MBS peers.

"Flows for 2013 appear to be favoring the better performers from 2012, but the point is somewhat absurd, as funds with outflows in 2013 still managed to return an average of 17.2 percent in 2012," the report adds.