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“The majority of hedge funds ended 2009 with excellent results. The average fund has traded near or above its high water mark of last year. Over a two-year period, the downside protection of hedge funds made them a substantially more rewarding investment than long-only funds and equity index products,” notes Clint Binkley, Senior Vice President.

Long/Short Equity managers were the best performing strategy group in December, gaining +2.28%. For the year, Long/Short managers added +23.35%, pacing the S&P 500 and outperforming the index by more than 20% over a 2 year period. Growth funds performed slightly better than Value managers in 2009, returning +28.93% and 24.82%, respectively. Short-biased funds lost (-14.91%) on average in 2009 but are still up more than 10% over a 2 year period.

Market Neutral funds gained +1.69% in December and +18.37% during the year. The Event Driven sector performed moderately better than Arbitrage funds as a whole, although pockets of the Arbitrage space enjoyed their best year on record. Convertible Arbitrage managers closed the year with a gain of +2.17% on the month and +49.42% for the year to become the best performing hedge fund sector during 2009. Fixed Income Arbitrage funds turned in a +22.22% gain during the year, moderately higher than the gain of +15.86% achieved by Other Arbitrage managers. Event Driven managers enjoyed a profitable December and advanced by +3.00%, driven by Distressed and Special Situations funds, which gained +2.97% and 4.24%, respectively. For the year, Event Driven and Distressed Securities funds advanced 300 basis points more than Long/Short Equity funds.

Directional Trading funds struggled in December as trend following strategies closed the books on a disappointing 2009. Futures funds lost -2.70% during the month and, along with Shortsellers, were the only hedge fund sector to finish with a loss for the year. Macro funds also experienced a slight loss of -0.42% during the month but still managed a return of +9.30% for the year.

Emerging Market funds advanced for their tenth straight month due to expanding production in China and other developing economies. These funds were the second best performing hedge fund sector during 2009, gaining over 42%. Fixed Income funds also moved higher, advancing by +2.30%. Finally, Multi-Strategy funds treaded water for the month and slightly trailed the GGHFI on the year, gaining +17.13%.

The GGHFI is one of the oldest benchmarks of the hedge fund universe. Final index results for December will be available mid-January, once additional funds have submitted returns. The GI2, comprising 40 constituent funds, adds investability, active management, and liquidity to the diversification and performance benefits of the broad Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index. It references actual hedge fund vehicles as opposed to separately managed accounts or other methods used in an attempt to replicate the returns of hedge fund vehicles. The Investable Index has a correlation of 0.95 and beta of 0.94 to the GGHFI and is reported semi-monthly net of a 0.02% per period index calculation fee. Past performance and indices construction rules for all Greenwich Hedge Fund Indices may be viewed at www.greenwichai.com.

- FG