Hedge funds were down 1.24%1 in May, ending a 10 month winning run for the industry. However managers in all regions outperformed their respective underlying market indices, as the MSCI World Index2 declined by 2.52% during the month. Additionally, the industry continued to attract capital from investors for the sixth consecutive month, despite a spike in risk aversion.
Total assets under management (AuM) were down by US$5 billion – with the size of the industry standing at US$1.82 trillion. Managers witnessed declines through performance during the month as markets were affected by concerns of slowing economic growth, heightened geopolitical tensions and the Eurozone sovereign debt issue. Performance based losses for the month were US$13.1 billion, however despite the high volatility environment, investors still allocated capital to the hedge fund industry. Managers attracted net positive asset flows of US$8.1 billion – bringing the total asset flow for the year to US$113.8 billion.
Figure 1: Summary monthly asset flow data since December 2008
Key highlights for the month of May:
- Hedge funds in all regions outperformed underlying markets
- Net asset flows remained positive for the sixth consecutive month – US$8.1 billion
- Net asset flows for first five months stand at...
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