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Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia:

Most global macro investors were rewarded last month with strong performance despite a volatile market across asset classes. While many hedge funds faced challenges in January, the HFRX Macro/CTA index was 2.0% for the month, according to the latest GAM Insight.

The MSCI World index fell by 1.8% while the S&P 500 index lost 3.0% in U.S. dollar terms. Europe proved a notable exception with European equities strongly positive in local currency terms, the report said.

Anthony Lawler, portfolio manager at GAM, commented, "The key issues for investors in January largely centered around quantitative easing (QE) and currencies. There was a lot of discussion around the surprise removal of the Swiss franc peg to the euro by the Swiss National Bank, but the impact from that move was contained mainly to one-off markdowns for dealers and investors caught on the wrong side of the trade. The moves that most widely impacted traders were the European Central Bank’s QE announcement and the broad strengthening of the U.S. dollar."

He continued that the QE announcement drove European equities, sovereign bonds and credit up strongly in euro terms, while the euro itself weakened by more than 6% versus the U.S. dollar. GAM’s expectation is that currencies and rates will continue to be fruitful for macro managers. Lawler said he anticipates to continue seeing tactical longs in Euro......................

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