BarclayHedge Blog

FAIRFIELD, Iowa, February 17, 2010– Managed futures lost 1.48% in January according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge.

“Unanticipated appreciation of the US Dollar together with falling commodity and stock prices proved to be a toxic mix, resulting in January losses for 60 percent of CTAs,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.

Read the entire Managed Futures Press Release by clicking here.

Labels: BarclayHedge press release, managed futures

FAIRFIELD, Iowa, February 16, 2010 – Hedge funds lost 0.29% in January according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge.

“Equity investors expressed their disappointment with White House announcements that the administration would seek to curtail risky behavior of U.S. banks,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.

Read the entire Hedge Fund Press Release by clicking here.

Labels: BarclayHedge press release, hedge funds

New York, NY – February 9, 2010 – TrimTabs Investment Research and BarclayHedge reported that all hedge funds posted an estimated outflow of $3.8 billion in December 2009. December’s outflow is the industry’s first since July 2009. At the same time, hedge fund assets grew to a 12-month high of $1.5 trillion thanks to an unprecedented 10-month winning streak.

“December’s relatively small outflow is almost certainly seasonal, a product of quarter-end and year-end redemptions,” said Sol Waksman, CEO of BarclayHedge. “Hedge funds experienced outflows in December in each of the past five years, and we suspect inflows have already resumed.”

In addition, funds of hedge funds posted an estimated outflow of $6.3 billion in December, bringing redemptions for all of 2009 to $180.9 billion. Funds of funds returned only 10.24% in 2009, less than half of the industry’s average 23.9% gain. “Funds of hedge funds turned extremely risk-averse after the late 2008 sell-off,” said Vincent Deluard, Global Equity Strategist at TrimTabs. “Their conservative strategy allocation and large cash balances hurt their returns during this rebound.”

Read the entire TrimTabs Asset Flows into Hedge Funds Press Release by clicking here.

Labels: BarclayHedge press release, CTA, flows into CTAs, flows into hedge funds, hedge fund flows, hedge fund research, hedge funds

By Kirill Ilinski, Fusion Asset Management and Alexis Pokrovski, Laboratory of Quantum Networks, Institute for Physics, St-Petersburg State University

In their paper they examine in detail the qualitative effects caused by the investors' sensitivity to mark-to-market and price of liquidity. They find that by chasing returns and prompting investment managers to deliver unsustainable performance, the investment community damages its own chances through a greedy search for yield.

Download the full article here.

From the February 2010 issue of Barclay's Insider Report. Accredited investors can subscribe to the full newsletter for free.

Labels: Barclay Insider Report, Barclay Insider Report Guest Article, hedge fund performance, hedge funds

Hedge funds had a positive month in December reflected by gains in sixteen of our eighteen indices. The average return for the 2,640 hedge funds (ex. FoFs) that have so far reported a December return is +1.97%. The estimates for January, along with the number of funds reporting for each of our 18 sectors can be found at the link below. These indices are being continually updated as current returns for the underlying hedge funds are recorded into our system. As of this writing, 11 of 18 hedge fund sectors are showing positive returns for January.

Commodity Trading Advisor performance for December as measured by the Barclay CTA Index averaged -1.50%. January's estimate based on the performance of the Barclay BTOP50 Index is -1.55%.

Hedge Fund Indices Managed Futures Indices

From the February 2010 issue of Barclay's Insider Report. Accredited investors can subscribe to the full newsletter for free.

Labels: Barclay Insider Report, commodity trading advisor, CTA, hedge fund performance

BarclayHedge is now posting new fund launches on our website. Check back often, as we’ll be updating this information daily. To see the latest hedge funds, fund of funds and CTAs that have launched recently or will be launching soon click here. Fund Managers who would like to see their new fund listed on Barclay’s website and featured in the next Insider Report, can submit new fund launch press releases directly to rmiller@barclayhedge.com. Below is a list of recent fund launches:

• 3 Degrees Credit Opportunities Fund


• Brasada Strategic Growth Fund, LP


• Brasada Value Opportunities Fund, LP


• Cirrus Capital Management, LLC


• Crystal Capital International Fund SPC


• CSHG Fix Fund


• Diversified Dynamic Solution Fund


• Faulkner Capital FX; Metals & Mining


• Montague Financial (S&P Abs Return)


• Permian Fund, L.P.


• Stella Capital Al-Aqarat Fund, LP


• Stella Capital Real Estate Opportunity


• Straight Line Opportunity, L.P.


• VOC Commodity Alpha

From the February 2010 issue of Barclay's Insider Report. Accredited investors can subscribe to the full newsletter for free.

Labels: CTA, hedge funds, New Fund Launches

The topical study from the February 2010 issue of The Hedge Fund Flow Report. Gain insight into industry trends and hedge fund asset flows before you make your next important decision.


Many academic studies teach; and the collapse in equity prices in 2008 reminds, that hedge funds are subject to brutal sell-offs one would not expect looking solely at the mean and variance of their historical returns. Kurtosis measures the risk of a highly implausible event coming to pass more frequently than one would expect from a normally distributed variable. Nassim Taleb popularized this notion in The Black Swan, his well-timed 2007 book.
We used the BarclayHedge database to measure the kurtosis of hedge fund returns and how it impacts hedge fund flows. We were especially interested to know if kurtosis is priced in, or if non-normal returns offer arbitrage opportunities for sophisticated investors.
We believe this study supplements the existing literature for three reasons:

Its simplicity - Our goal was not to run a battery of complex econometric tests on the data, but rather 1. to see whether hedge fund investors can hedge themselves from the problem of kurtosis. . . .

Accredited investors can read the entire article for free.

From the February 2010 issue of The Hedge Fund Flow Report. The Hedge Fund Flow Report combines the accuracy of the BarclayHedge database with the analytical insight of TrimTabs Investment Research. The report is generated by TrimTabs Investment Research using the most current data on thousands of hedge funds. An annual subscription includes 12 monthly updates as well as a spreadsheet containing historical flow aggregates by category.

To download a free sample of the entire TrimTabs Hedge Fund Flow Report, simply fill out this short request form.

Labels: CTA, Hedge Fund Flow Topical Study, hedge funds