Major hedge fund indexes landed in positive territory for the nine months ended Sept. 30, although none beat the 8.5% return of the S&P 500 or the 11.2% return of the MSCI World Equity indexes. The best return was 7.1% for the Hedge Fund Research Hedge Fund Composite index. Next was 6.71% of the Barclay Hedge Fund index, followed by 6.6% for the Greenwich/Van Hedge Fund index; 6.32% for the Hennessee Hedge Fund index; 6.19% for the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund index; and 5.8% for the MSCI Hedge Fund Composite index.
Among major investible hedge fund indexes, the RBC Hedge 250 index returned 5.69% through Sept. 30. It was followed by Greenwich/Van Hedge Fund Investable index, 5.5%; Credit Suisse/Tremont Investable Hedge Fund index, 5.3%; and MSCI Hedge Invest index, 3.29%.
Hedge fund-of-funds index returns trended lower than indexes based on single and multistrategy hedge funds. The EDHEC Fund of Funds index topped the pack with a 5.7% return for the nine months, followed by the HFRI Fund of Funds index, 4.77%; Barclay Hedge Fund of Funds, 4.26%; and Eurekahedge Fund of Funds, 4.02%.
Eurekahedge also calculated nine-month index returns for hedge fund managers by size and reported that hedge funds with assets of more than $500 million returned 6.57%, followed by midsize funds (with $100 million to $500 million) at 6.18%, while small funds (with less than $100 million under management) came in at 6.13%.
