After a shaky start to the year, hedge funds bounced back in February across the board, with most strategies recovering most or all of January’s lost ground. The composite Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index advanced an impressive 2.9%1, with all regions recording positive returns during the month. This was despite concerns surrounding a global economic slowdown (and fears of a recession in the US) weighing on most regional markets.
In terms of regional mandates (refer to the graph below), the best returns came from the Emerging markets (as bullish trends in the commodity markets lent support to prices in Latin American, Eastern European and some Emerging Asian equities). North American and Asian mandates were both up 1.7%; the former largely due to the performance of regional CTAs, while the latter owed it to notable returns across equities in some countries). European and Japanese managers were at the lower end of the spectrum, having returned 1.4% and 1.2% respectively.
