Hedge funds beat equity index

Date: Thursday, August 13, 2009
Author: Advisor.ca

The Hennessee Hedge Fund Index continued to outperform the S&P 500 in 2009 advancing 3.37% in July to take the index to a positive 15.5% year to date.

"Hedge funds underperformed in July, as we would expect, but were able to capture a good portion of the market rally in July," says Lee Hennessee, managing principal with Hennessee Group.

Hedge funds also outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which increased 8.58% in July, up 4.50% year to date.

Meanwhile individual strategies performed positively across the board. The Hennessee Long/Short Equity Index gained 2.89% in July (up 13.39% year to date) and the Hennessee Arbitrage/Event Driven Index rose 3.62% in July (up 18.49% year to date).

The distressed equity group advanced 5.16% in July, moving to a positive 23.47% year to date, while the convertible arbitrage group improved 6.21%, up 31.64% for the year.

Also moving upward, the merger arbitrage group increased 0.27% in July, totaling 5.28% year to date, and the global/macro category moved up 4.12% in July, a total of 15.89% for the year.

Last, the macro category rose 2.67% in July and was up 8.24% for the year.