Industry Updates

Fortress liquid hedge funds down in May, estimated returns for macro fund are -2.46% (-1.80% YTD)

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

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Opalesque Industry Update – Few hedge funds are putting up positive estimated returns for May 2011. Exchange traded hedge fund firm Fortress Investment Group today filed their May returns with the SEC revealing the firm’s macro fund (both onshore and offshore) dropped -2.46% during the month and is down -1.80% YTD. The firm’s other liquid hedge funds also delivered negative performance with the Asia Macro Fund down -1.15% (remaining +2% YTD) and the Commodities Fund losing -1.34% (still at +1.24% YTD).

The firm also reported performance on their credit funds for April 2011, which painted a brighter picture. The Drawbridge Special Opportunities Fund was +1/34% (+6.34% YTD), the offshore version of the fund gained +1.44% (+7.33% YTD) and the Fortress Partners Fund gained 0.97% in April (+4.33% YTD) and the offshore version put up +0.82% (+4.07% YTD).

Overall, May was not a good month for hedge funds. Many of the big name funds tracked through the media have delivered negative estimated performance numbers on the month. Other macro managers also struggled with Moore Global giving up approximately 3%, and Caxton Global approximately 2.4%. Macro fund managers have struggled through the stop and start recovery, eyeing quantitative easing and its expected outcomes as well as other government policy risk as a major impediments to their success.

“Macro-fund managers and hedge-fund analysts say that many macro funds weren’t believers in either the U.S. stock rally or the euro’s strength, both of which turned in to missed opportunities, and that at the same time, there was little consensus about where to make profitable trades beyond shorting the U.S. dollar and going long gold,” reports CNBC.

According to research from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as June opened macro hedge funds were largely focused on buying NASDAQ 100, S&P 500, commodities and 10-year T notes. The bank also says these funds are favoring large caps and added slightly to their US $ shorts.

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