News & Events

Asset Flows Update

Introduction

Hedge funds sealed the first quarter of the year with another month of negative returns, down 0.35%1 in March as managers navigated through a choppy start to the year. However, strong returns posted by fund managers in the previous month saw them through with the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index up 0.87% in Q1 2014, outperforming the MSCI World Index which has gained 0.67% over the same period. 

Final asset flow figures for February revealed that managers realised performance-based gains of US$26.8 billion while recording net asset inflows of US$31.4 billion as hedge funds continued to attract strong capital allocations from investors. Preliminary data for March shows that managers have posted performance-based losses of US$0.97 billion while net asset inflows for the month stand at US$8.09 billion, bringing the current AUM of the industry to US$2.07 trillion – the highest level on record.

Figure 1: Summary monthly asset flow data since January 2011

 

Key highlights for March 2014:

  • Hedge funds up 0.87% in Q1 2014, with fund managers delivering performance-based gains of US$21 billion and recording net asset inflows of US$38 billion over this period – bringing the current AUM of the global hedge fund industry to US$2.07 trillion, a new record high.
  • The Eurekahedge North America Hedge Fund Index was up 2.25% in the first quarter of 2014, outperforming the S&P 500 index which gained 1.30% over this period.
  • Long/short equities funds record their 16th consecutive month of positive net asset flows, with net capital allocations to the strategy for Q1 2014 at US$38.5 billion and total assets in long/short equities hedge funds standing at US$704.6 billion – nearing close to their historical high of US$756 billion reached in December 2007.


The full article is available in The Eurekahedge Report accessible to paying subscribers only.


Subscribers may continue to login as usual to download the full report and non-subscribers may email database@eurekahedge.com to enquire on how to obtain the full research report.

 

Footnote

1Based on 47.06% of funds which have reported March 2014 returns as at 11 April 2014