The first eight months of 2022 have been characterized by a turbulent market environment, with rising recession concerns amid multi-decade high inflation and central bank hawkishness weighing down on global bonds and equities. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite have fallen 17.0% and 24.5%, respectively, marking their worst performance since the 2008 global financial crisis. Against this backdrop, the average macro hedge fund (0.2%) and billiondollar macro fund (10.9%) have performed well, outperforming all other hedge fund strategies tracked by With Intelligence, with the exception of CTA/managed futures (7.1%). Macro hedge funds have historically offered attractive riskadjusted returns, good diversification benefits arising from their relatively lower volatility, moderate correlation with the global equity market and the potential to perform well during market sell-offs. With inflation showing no sign of abating, monetary policy is likely to remain tight in the short to medium term, providing fund managers with macro strategy opportunities that they will look to exploit amid the volatile market environment.
Performance of macro hedge funds against other investment vehicles since end-1999
Following three consecutive years of underperformance from 2019 to 2021, in which macro hedge funds trailed behind the S&P 500 and NASDAQ composite, the strategy has managed to turn the tide in 2022, providing valuable diversification and positive return streams to investors during a tumultuous period for the market. Billion-dollar macro hedge funds (10.9%) have performed exceptionally well in 2022, outperforming the S&P 500, average macro hedge fund and average hedge fund by 28.0%, 10.7% and 15.0%, respectively. This margin of outperformance was last witnessed in 2008 when the average macro hedge fund and billion-dollar macro hedge fund outperformed the S&P 500 by 41.7% and 32.5%, respectively.
The full article is available here accessible to paying subscribers only.
Subscribers may continue to login as usual to download the full report and non-subscribers may sign up hereto enquire on how to obtain the full research report.
