Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index rose +0.93% for July

Hedge fund managers posted positive results in July 2012 on average as the Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index rose +0.93% for the month. As indicated in our first estimates earlier this month, Futures strategies were one of the best performers in July, returning an average of +2.29%. The GGHFI’s gain of +0.93% closely follows that of global equity returns in the S&P 500 Total Return (1.39%), and MSCI World Equity (+1.20%) equity indices. 66% of constituent funds in the GGHFI ended the month with gains.

Global Index Strategy Highlights

• Futures funds are one of the best performers during the month, gaining +2.29% on average. Many managers benefitted from long positions in commodities markets, especially in agriculture. Macro managers also performed well in the month with a +1.52% gain.

• Global stock markets saw much of their gains concentrated in the last week of the month. On average, Long/Short Equity funds returned another month of modest gains (+0.19%), continuing to trail equity markets. Value strategies outperformed both Opportunistic and Growth strategies with a gain of +0.41%. Short-Biased funds were a bright spot in this group in July, rising +3.52%.

• Fixed Income Arbitrage funds were the best performers in the Market Neutral Group in July, returning +1.51%. This strategy is now up approximately 6.1% YTD, along with Convertible Arbitrage. These strategies now lag only Long-Short Credit funds for their 2012 performance (+6.14% YTD).

• Regionally, funds investing in Developed Markets (+0.99%) outperformed those investing in Emerging Markets (+0.20%) on average in July. Global Developed Markets funds had the best month (+1.60%). Perhaps surprisingly, this was followed in the Developed Markets category by Western European funds, which rose 0.95% in July. This brings them to +4.02% YTD, making this region the strongest YTD. Funds focused on Emerging Markets Europe also posted very strong results for the month, gaining +1.17% on average.