Hedge Funds

Review of Market Performance: Fiscal Year 2022

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Fiscal year 2022 was a challenging one for public market investments. Rising levels of inflation across most developed and emerging markets saw central banks become more aggressive in their monetary tightening plans. This in turn saw correlations between bonds and equities become positive; bonds declined as a direct result of higher inflation and tighter policy, while equities weakened in response to the higher cost of capital. This chart book presents returns and other market metrics for fiscal year 2022.

Hedge Fund Update: Second Quarter 2022

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Volatility peaked in June as markets struggled to find equilibrium between inflationary pressures and the prospects of a recession. There was no shortage of uncertainty. Given the environment, hedge funds performed relatively well versus broad equity and credit market indexes, despite most strategies experiencing absolute losses.

Hedge Fund Update: First Quarter 2022

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Continuing the trend seen in second half 2021, global equity markets remained volatile during first quarter 2022, as global indexes declined. Despite the market drawdown, broader indexes mask the relative performance among index constituents. Underlying volatility across sectors was more pronounced. As a result, within long/short equity hedge fund strategies, manager returns had wide dispersion driven primarily by net exposure to growth names and recent IPOs within the technology, healthcare, and consumer sectors.

Review of Market Performance: Calendar Year 2021

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The global economy continued its road to recovery in 2021, as the most severe economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic gradually receded. There were fresh waves of infection during the year, but the public health actions taken to counter them were less economically damaging. In the meantime, fiscal and monetary policy remained at extremely accommodative levels, supporting strong risk-asset performance.

Macro Hedge Funds Should Benefit from Improved Opportunities

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Rising inflation and moderating growth are generally associated with a higher risk premium as investors start to price in a potential shift in market regime. In the past, global macro managers have generally benefited from better alpha opportunities that arise from volatility. With this backdrop, we expect macro hedge fund performance to be better than average next year.