Industry Updates

EDHEC-Risk indices show modest returns for February

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

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Opalesque Industry Update - The EDHEC-Risk Institute's Alternative Indexes showed modest gains for February, as stock markets continued to rise for the fourth consecutive month.

The S&P 500 gained 1.36%, registering a 6.61% progression since the beginning of 2013. Equity implied volatility increased moderately, however, settling at a level (VIX: 15.5%) that was still close to a five-year low. High-grade bonds improved slightly (Lehman Global: 0.53%, Lehman US: 0.21%), while risky credit proved unable to extend a nascent positive trend (Credit-Spread Index: -0.25%, Convertibles: -0.21%). Commodities suffered a 4.02% loss, wiping out nearly all of last month’s gains. The dollar, finally, staged a comeback with the first significant gain (3.03%) for 9 months.

Equity-focused strategies exhibited returns that were broadly consistent with the market dynamics. The Long/Short Equity strategy (0.41%) showed some negative alpha, the Equity Market Neutral strategy (0.34%) mildly positive alpha, whereas the Event Driven strategy (0.49%) performed in line with its modelled dynamic exposure.

The Convertible Arbitrage strategy (0.21%) managed to post its ninth consecutive gain despite almost flat equity exposure and associated fixed-income risk drivers weakening. The CTA Global strategy, structurally unable to extract any alpha from the markets in their current, persisting regime, disappointed once again with a 0.97% loss. As a mere average of lacklustre components, the Funds of Funds strategy scored an unimpressive 0.26% gain, which furthermore implies a negative idiosyncratic performance.

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