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"Strong global equity markets continued to fuel broad based hedge fund gains," says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge. Fourteen of Barclay's 17 hedge fund indices registered positive returns for the month.

"Driven by positive earnings reports, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ both ended the month at new all-time highs. Shinzo Abe's re-election as Japan's Prime Minister propelled the Nikkei 225 to its highest level in 20 years."

Technology extends gains

Technology has been the big gainer year to date with a rise of 21.09% and led all indices last month with a gain of 2.83%. Pacific Rim Equities (2.41%), Equity Long Bias (1.76%) and Global Macro (1.63%) also were strong in October.

Healthcare and Biotechnology, which is the second best performing sector for the year at 15.23%, registered the biggest slide (-1.69) in October. Event Driven (-0.92%) and Distressed Securities (-1.14%) also posted losses for the month.

"Healthcare and Biotechnology has been strong in 2017 but suffered last month as Congress failed in their efforts to 'repeal and replace' the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)." according to Waksman. "Pharmaceutical stocks were particularly affected and were a big contributor to the losses."

In other year to date returns, Emerging Markets follows Technology and Healthcare & Biotechnology with a rise of 14.60% so far in 2017. All of Barclay's 17 hedge fund indices are profitable through month-end October. The sectors with the smallest gains for the year have been Convertible Arbitrage (3.06%), Equity Market Neutral (2.89%), and Distressed Securities (0.58%).