Hedge Funds

Asia Insights: Playing Defense

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Asian markets have had a difficult year, but while the current environment has been challenging for most investments, it has also created an opportunity for more defensive and diversifying strategies to add value. In this edition of Asia Insights, we focus on the case for Asia quality strategies within public equities; increased interest in India and Southeast Asia venture capital markets; private infrastructure and private credit as defensive strategies; and the value in Asia macro and equity long/short.

The Growing Importance of Asia Equity Long/Short

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Equity long/short investing is one of the most widely adopted strategies by hedge fund managers in Asia. Its importance has increased over time, and we believe that this strategy can play a key role within a global hedge fund portfolio. There have been several positive developments in recent years that build the case for investors to allocate to the strategy, including better market access, continued alpha opportunity, and a greater talent pool.

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.