Greenwich Mid-Month Update: Hedge Funds Gain +1.18% in March

April 10, 2013 - PRLog -- Stamford, CT, USA, April 10, 2013 – Hedge funds are off to a good start in 2013 adding +1.18% on average in March and closing out the first quarter of 2013 up +3.86%.  US equity markets lead the world with the S&P 500 hitting a new high during the month and finished March up +3.08%. Two-thirds of all constituent funds reported positive gains for March.

Global Index Strategy Highlights

·         The top three strategies in March were Convertible Arbitrage (+2.37%), Value (+2.03%) and Diversified Event-Driven (1.89%). Geographically, Asian markets continued to outperform other regions in both Developed (+3.08%) and Emerging Markets (+0.56%) during the month.

·         Convertible Arbitrage funds saw their best month in March posting returns of +2.37% on average, and are now up YTD +5.54%. Continued credit market uncertainty, particularly in Europe, combined with a bull run in equity markets created rich spreads for managers to take advantage of.  

·         Long-Short Equity remained the top performing group thus far in 2013 finishing up +5.83% YTD and +1.65% in March. Value managers added the most to the group performance in March, averaging +2.03%, followed by Growth (+1.71%) and Opportunistic (+0.89). Short-Biased managers struggled against buoyant equity markets, losing -2.48% during the month.

·         As expected, European Emerging Markets had the most difficultly in March. Funds focused on European Emerging Markets lost -3.12% during March as fallout from the mid-month Cyprus bailout took effect.  

Strategy Group Summary

March

YTD

2013

Return

Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index

1.18%

3.86%

Market Neutral Group

1.08%

3.39%

 Equity Market Neutral

-0.21%

1.55%

 Event-Driven

1.51%

4.35%

     Distressed Securities

1.47%

5.11%

     Merger Arbitrage

0.46%

0.52%

     Diversified Event-Driven

1.89%

5.08%

 Arbitrage

1.74%

3.73%

     Convertible Arbitrage

2.37%

5.54%

     Fixed Income Arbitrage

1.71%

3.49%

     Other Arbitrage

1.87%

3.57%

Long-Short Equity Group

1.65%

5.83%

 Growth

1.71%

6.26%

 Opportunistic

0.89%

4.27%

 Short-Biased

-2.48%

-5.86%

 Value

2.03%

6.76%

Directional Trading Group

0.60%

1.31%

 Futures

0.52%

0.72%

 Macro

0.79%

2.68%

Specialty Strategies Group

0.83%

2.79%

 Long-Short Credit

0.64%

2.35%

 Multi-Strategy

0.94%

3.07%

Greenwich Regional Hedge Fund Indices

March

YTD

Developed Markets

2013

Return

 Composite

1.35%

4.08%

 Global

0.79%

2.54%

 Asia

3.08%

8.87%

 Europe

0.46%

3.48%

 North America

1.92%

5.06%

Emerging Markets

 Composite

-0.50%

2.27%

 Emerging Markets Global

0.20%

1.96%

 Emerging Markets Asia

0.56%

4.71%

 Emerging Markets Europe

-3.12%

-1.06%

 Emerging Markets Latin America/SA

-0.77%

2.03%

The GGHFI is one of the oldest benchmarks of the hedge fund universe.  Final Strategy and Regional index results for March will be available in early May, once additional funds have submitted returns.  Past performance and indices construction rules for all Greenwich Hedge Fund Indices may be viewed at www.greenwichai.com.

About Greenwich Alternative Investments  

Greenwich Alternative Investments, LLC (and its affiliates) manages one of the world’s largest hedge fund databases and is among the oldest providers of hedge fund indices, asset management services, and research to institutional investors worldwide.

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