Hedge Funds Recover From Red-Ink January: Preqin

"However, equity benchmarks improved in February, with indices such as S&P 500 reaching record levels; strategies which have a focus on equities, in turn, also saw strong performance for the month. Event-driven and long/short funds both posted returns of over 2% in February, taking their 12-month net returns to 16% and 11.9%, respectively."

Preqin reported these other key facts:

• Event-driven funds were the top performers in February, gaining 2.7% and continuing their eight-month streak of positive performance.
• Relative value funds, which had posted the best returns in January, added just 0.8% in February.
• Emerging markets funds, the only regional benchmark in the red this year, returned 0.9% in February, not enough to regain losses of 2.1% in January.
• Funds of hedge funds focused on macro strategies have outperformed single-manager macro strategies funds year to date, posting net returns of 1.3%, compared with 0.2%.
• CTAs returned 1.8% in February, recovering a 1% loss in January. This was the benchmark's first monthly return over 1.5% since July 2012.
• North America-focused funds topped all regional benchmarks, adding 2.6% in February. This compared with 1.8% for Europe and 1.3% for Asia/Pacific.