Hedge fund consultant PivotalPath released its return figures for April this week, showing that hedge funds broadly outperformed the broad market indices and the S&P 500 by 8.5% — the largest outperformance since 1998.
The PivotalPath Hedge Fund Composite Index was down 0.2% in April, while the S&P declined by 8.7% and Nasdaq plunged by 13.3%. The 12-month beta of the firm’s composite hedge fund index sits at 0.11, which is the lowest since December 2017 and the second lowest since November 2003, officials reported.
Leading the way, unsurprisingly, were managed futures and global macro strategies that gained 4.5% and 3.5% respectively last month. Year to date managed futures are up 14.6% and global macro has gained 10%. Global macro returns were driven by commodities, risk premia and quantitative sub-strategies that all saw sizable gains in April.
The worst performing strategy remains equities, with the Equity Sector Index down 4.4% in April. Declines were due to poor performance in TMT (-14.3% year to date), Healthcare (-14.9% year to date) and Consumer sub-indices.
PivotalPath, on behalf of over $200 billion in client hedge fund capital, tracks over 2,500 institutionally relevant hedge funds, spanning more than $2.5 trillion of industry assets.
