Painful July for hedge funds 08 August 2014London Reporter: Stephen Durham
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July was a volatile month for hedge fund performance with an aggregate performance of -0.35 percent for the month.
This marked the industry’s fourth, non-consecutive, down month in 2014 and dropped year-to-date hedge fund returns to 2.62 percent, according to the eVestment July 2014 Hedge Fund Performance Report.
Hedge funds reported rising short exposure heading into July, with long/short equity funds’ median net exposure being the lowest since February 2010.
Distressed fund performance was negative in July amid a sell-off across high yield markets, though the group still remains the best performing major hedge fund strategy in 2014.
Activist funds also declined in July, but at year-to-date returns of 2.98 percent, are still on track to outpace the aggregate hedge fund industry returns.
Commodity funds outperformed in July amid sharp price declines across the commodity spectrum, giving commodity funds a year-to-date performance of 3.12 percent.
The report does point out that this aggregate of commodity performance hides some big drops in specific commodity segments.
Large macro and managed futures funds were also hurt in July as the US dollar surged against all major currencies and equity market declines.
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