More Hedge Funds Underwater

Date: Friday, October 1, 2010
Author: Murray Coleman, Barron's

By the end of last year, some 62% of hedge funds tracked by AR’s database were generating some sort of gain for investors. Heading into this month, that number had dropped to 59%.

“More ominously, 22% of all funds that report to AR are in danger of earning zero performance,” the hedge funds tracker wrote in an online piece today.

At the same time, the Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc unit has come out with its latest ranking of American hedge funds with more than $1 billion in assets.

In that list, Bridgewater Associates was still the largest U.S. player with $50.9 billion assets through June.

Holding onto its lead is even more impressive considering global hedge fund assets have been relatively flat.

Looks like the shakeout in hedge funds will continue at least for the near-future. But the bigger, more resourceful (and investor friendly) shops stand to gain some ground, as has apparently been the case with Bridgewater.