CASAM publishes 2007 industry report on hedge funds and commodity trading advisers

Date: Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Author: CASAM

Crédit Agricole Structured Asset Management (CASAM) released the 2007 Industry Report on hedge funds and commodity trading advisors (CTAs). The Industry Report includes over 100 charts and graphs drawing data for analysis from the CASAM CISDM Database and is available through casamhedge.com to accredited investors.

CASAM, together with the non-profit academic research center CISDM (1), estimate total hedge fund assets at the end of 2007 at 2.16 trillion USD, with a total number of hedge funds of nearly 10,000. The Industry Report reveals that while the majority of funds remain domiciled outside the United States , predominantly in the Cayman Islands, the United States continues to be the principal place of business for an estimated 60% of management companies, with 25% of management companies operating in New York alone. In terms of assets, equity long/short is the single largest hedge fund strategy, with a total of $568 billion, followed by event driven multi-strategy with $245 billion, and global macro with $221 billion.

In 2007 hedge funds returned 10.15% on an equal weighted basis, with those invested in emerging markets posting the highest results of 17.10% for the third consecutive year. The return for funds of funds overall in 2007 was 8.68%. Commodity trading advisers as a whole were up 11.57%, the highest annual performance since 2002. Among CTAs, equity CTA managers posted the highest returns of 23.58%, while physicals CTA managers posted the lowest performance with returns of negative 1.35%.

"As part of CASAM's research product range in alternative investments, the Industry Report is an essential resource for professionals wishing to gain detailed insight on current and past trends in the hedge fund and CTA industries. It covers key industry attributes including asset growth, number of funds, fund domiciles, geographic focus, fund age, currency, liquidity, and detailed performance statistics. The report also takes an honest look at management fees and incentive fees for hedge funds vs. funds of funds" stated Jeff Lopez, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of CASAM Americas.

About the CASAM CISDM Database
The CASAM CISDM Database , formerly the MARHedge Database, is the longest standing alternative product of its kind. It provides comprehensive hedge fund and Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) data to accredited institutional investors, consultants, pension funds and fund of funds managers as a means of identifying and analysing the hedge fund universe. The database contains historical returns and qualitative information on over 6,000 hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, commodity trading advisers and commodity pool operators and is also the source of performance tables for publications including Barron's and Alternative Investment News.