Hedge Funds Struggle with “New Market Order”

Stock Correlations at All Time Highs

The “risk on–risk off” trade, driven by major macro themes such as the economy and regulationcontinue to dominate the financial markets.  The "risk on" trade is best characterized by an uptick in investor confidence as they seek out risk assets including stocks, high yield bonds, emerging markets and commodities.  During the “risk on” trade, the market experiences sharp, broad based gains with nearly all stocks and sectors benefiting.  The "risk off" trade entails a flight to safety as investors flee risk assets for safe-haven investments such as U.S. Treasuries, gold, and the dollar. In this environment, the markets experience a sharp sell-off and all stocks and sectors experience losses.  This investor behavior has led to stocks moving in lockstep and has made individual security selection a difficult task as stocks move more based on macro sentiment than underlying fundamentals.  A study recently conducted by Birinyi Associates underscores this spike in stock correlation.  According to their study, the correlation among stocks in the Russell 3000 Index reached an all time high of 0.72 in July of 2010 and was at 0.63 entering October; well above its longer term average of 0.32.

Another factor contributing to the spike in correlation is the use of exchange-traded funds (ETF’s).  As the markets have become increasingly correlated and individual stock selection has proven challenging, investors have sought the use of ETF’s to make broad based bets on the financial markets. As ETF’s have grown in popularity, they are accounting for a larger share of daily stock-trading volume and are contributing to the market being driven more by macro sentiment than fundamentals.  According to the 2010 Investment Company Factbook, the size of the ETF market has grown from 80 ETF’s and $66 billion in 2000 to 797 ETF’s and $777 billion in 2009. As can be seen in the chart below, low quality stocks (B- and C based on S&P ratings) have consistently outperformed high quality stocks (A and A+ based on S&P ratings) since the beginning of 2009.  This can be partly attributed to the use of exchange-traded funds as these passively managed funds buy into and sell out of broad based indices, which leads to erratic moves for the underlying securities, irrespective of fundamentals.  Hedge funds seeking to generate gains in their short portfolios have found this to be an increasingly frustrating development as stocks with poor fundamentals continue to outperform as they benefit from investor flows into broad based investment vehicles. 

Source:  Factset

2011 and Beyond

“Concerns about the sovereign debt crisis and fears of a double dip recession, as well as other macro themes, have continued to dominate the investment landscape.  The macro driven environment has made alpha generation difficult due to elevated levels of correlation among stocks.” said Mr. Gradante. “That said, we believe the current macro focus and high correlation is only temporary.  Investment opportunities for hedge funds will increase as correlations revert to historical levels and stocks start to move in line with their fundamental values.”