Thu, Apr 25, 2024
A A A
Welcome Guest
Free Trial RSS pod
Get FREE trial access to our award winning publications
Industry Updates

Wilshire Liquid Alternative Index up 0.78% in October

Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Opalesque Industry Update - The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Index, which provides a representative baseline for how the broad liquid alternative investment category performs, returned 0.78% in October, outperforming the 0.69% return of the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index. The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Index family is a joint offering between Wilshire Funds Management, the global investment management business unit of Wilshire Associates Incorporated, and Wilshire Analytics, creator of the Wilshire 5000 Total Market IndexSM.

"Every Wilshire liquid alternative index was notably positive this month, and CTAs significantly recovered from the negative performance seen last month due to strong equity and commodity trends in October," said Jason Schwarz, President of Wilshire Funds Management.

Multi-Strategy

· The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Multi-Strategy IndexSM, which includes both single and multi-manager funds, returned 0.99% in October.

Global Macro

· The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Global Macro IndexSM, which includes systematic, discretionary, commodity and currency funds, ended the month up 2.29%, outperforming the 1.92% return of the HFRX Macro/CTA Index

· CTAs contributed 220 basis points of return, which represented almost the entire index return

· Equities and commodities were the largest drivers of returns, while currencies and interest rates were flat to negative for the month.

· Discretionary global macro managers contributed three basis points of return, while currency managers contributed 11 basis points.

Relative Value

· The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Relative Value IndexSM, which includes credit, convertible arbitrage and volatility funds, ended the month up 0.08%, trailing the HFRX Relative Value Arbitrage Index, which returned 0.52%, by 44 basis points.

· Credit and multi-strategy managers contributed the majority of the return, 14 and 8 basis points, respectively.

· Volatility continued to be subdued, and volatility strategies consequently detracted 10 basis points of return this month.

· Investment grade and high yield credit spreads tightened further, with investment grade spreads dropping to as low as 1% intra-month. U.S. treasury yields widened from 2.33% to 2.38% as earnings and economic data were generally positive.

Equity Hedge

· The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Equity Hedge IndexSM, which includes long/short equity and market neutral funds, gained 0.85% in October, outperforming the HFRX Equity Hedge Index by six basis points.

· Long-biased managers contributed 65 basis points of return, while market neutral managers added 11 basis points.

· Rising equity markets benefited long-biased strategies, with positive contributions from the Information Technology, Financials, Materials and Utilities sectors. Meanwhile, managers with exposure to the Consumer Staples, Telecommunications and Health Care sectors underperformed.

· Managers focused on emerging and European markets were notable outperformers, and growth-oriented managers continued to materially outperform value-oriented managers.

Event Driven

· The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Event Driven IndexSM, which includes credit, merger arbitrage and special situations funds, ended October up 0.35%, outperforming the HFRX Event Driven Index by 48 basis points.

· Credit managers added 15 basis points of return, merger arbitrage managers added 13 basis points, and multi-strategy event managers added two basis points this month.

· Managers that were long credit risk added value as lower-rated corporate bonds and loans gained.

What do you think?

   Use "anonymous" as my name    |   Alert me via email on new comments   |   
Previous Opalesque Exclusives                                  
Previous Other Voices                                               
Access Alternative Market Briefing

 



  • Top Forwarded
  • Top Tracked
  • Top Searched
  1. KKR raises $6.4bn for the largest pan-Asia infrastructure fund[more]

    Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: The New York-based global investment firm KKR has raised a record $6.4bn for its second Asia-focused infrastructure fund, underlining investors' continued appetite for private markets. According to a media release from the alternative assets manager, the figure top

  2. Bucking the trend, top hedge fund makes plans for a second SPAC[more]

    From Institutional Investor: SPACs aren't dead. At least not to the folks at Cormorant Asset Management. The life sciences firm, whose hedge fund topped its peers in 2023, is confident it will match the success of its first blank-check company. Last week, the life sciences and biopharma speciali

  3. Benefit Street Partners closes fifth fund on $4.7 billion[more]

    Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Benefit Street Partners has closed its fifth flagship direct lending vehicle, BSP Debt Fund V, with $4.7 billion of investable capital across the strategy. Benefit Street invests primarily in privately originated, floating rate, senior secured loans. The fun

  4. 4 hedge fund themes that are working in 2024[more]

    From The Street: A poor earnings report from Tesla (TSLA) has not hurt the indexes on Thursday. The decline in Tesla stock, which is losing its position in the Magnificent Seven pantheon, is more than offset by strong earnings from IBM (IBM) and ServiceNow (NOW) . In addition, the much higher-t

  5. Opalesque Exclusive: A global macro fund eyes opportunities in bonds[more]

    Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York for New Managers: Munich-based ThirdYear Capital rebounded in 2023, following a tough year for global macro. The firm's flagship ART Global Macro strategy finished the year up 1