Hedge funds suffer worst quarter since 2008

[alp227]

Hedge funds suffered their worst three months since the peak of the 2008 financial crisis in the third quarter this year with almost every type of alternative investment strategy losing money for investors.

The average hedge fund suffered a 2.8 per cent fall in the value of its assets in September, which took total average losses for the quarter to 5.5 per cent, according to Hedge Fund Research.

Equity focused hedge funds meanwhile did no better than the broader market. In a blow to highly paid stock-pickers, funds that buy shares and use short sales to hedge their positions have delivered the same returns as the or the S&P 500 index, including dividends, in the first nine months of the year, a loss of 8.7 per cent.

Funds have struggled to perform as markets have swung wildly on each change in sentiment towards prospects for economic growth and the slow-moving sovereign debt crisis in Europe. Traders describe the environment as similar to that in 2008, but without the belief that governments will step in with emergency measures to calm markets.

full: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/70c79c78-f11b-11e0-b56f-00144feab49a.html

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[arikara]

2. Hedge funds and all these other useless speculation vehicles

need to become a footnote in history. They produce nothing, mean nothing and help no one except the manipulators.