Investors sent new money to hedge funds in November

Date: Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Author: Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Reuters

Global hedge funds pulled in new money in November, ending months of heavy outflows when investors punished managers for a string of poor returns, new data released on Tuesday showed.

Investors put $3.6 billion into hedge funds two months ago after having pulled out $9 billion in October and having removed $2.6 billion in September, research firms BarclayHedge and TrimTabs reported on Tuesday.

"After months of outflows across nearly every hedge fund category, November saw outflows in only two investment styles," said Sol Waksman, founder and President of BarclayHedge.

Investors pulled out $1.3 billion from funds specializing in emerging markets and removed $1.0 billion from so-called equity long-short funds, the industry's most popular strategy.

As investors returned to hedge funds in November, they favored multi-strategy funds, which pulled in $1.5 billion, and macro funds, which reported inflows of $981 million.

The inflows helped boost the industry's size to $1.71 trillion, but leaving it below the $2 trillion peak reached earlier in 2011.