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"The continued rally in equities led the Wilshire Liquid Alternative Global Macro IndexSM to its strongest monthly return since inception. CTAs led the charge and contributed the majority of this return, having captured the strong and long term upward trend in equity markets," said Jason Schwarz, President of Wilshire Funds Management and Wilshire Analytics.

Multi-Strategy

• The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Multi-Strategy IndexSM, which includes both single and multi-manager funds, returned 1.54% in January.

  Global Macro

  • The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Global Macro IndexSM ended the month up 2.74%, underperforming the 3.80% return of the HFRX Macro/CTA Index.

  • CTAs contributed almost the entire return, 225 basis points, in January.

  • U.S. equities were the strongest contributor for all managers, while all other asset classes and geographies delivered mixed performance.

  • Discretionary global macro contributed over 50 basis points of return, driven by equity markets.

  • Currency managers slightly detracted for the month.

  Relative Value

  • The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Relative Value IndexSM ended the month up 0.63%, underperforming the 1.09% return of the HFRX Relative Value Arbitrage Index.

  • Credit and multi-strategy managers contributed the majority of the return, 47 basis points and 19 basis points of return, respectively, while volatility strategies detracted 5 basis points of return. Convertible arbitrage strategies also contributed positively to the return for the month.

  • Investment grade and high yield credit spreads tightened further, from 0.99% down to 0.91% for investment grade credits and from 3.63% down to 3.29% for high yield.

  • U.S. treasury yields widened significantly, from 2.40% to 2.72%.

  Equity Hedge
  • The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Equity Hedge IndexSM ended the month up 2.52%, underperforming the 3.41% return of the HFRX Equity Hedge Index.

  • Long-biased managers contributed 211 basis points of return while market neutral managers added 20 basis points of return.

  • Long-biased strategies benefited from rising equity markets, with positive contributions coming from the Information Technology, Consumer Discretionary, Health Care and Financials sectors.

  • Growth-oriented strategies continued to outperform value-oriented strategies.

  Event Driven

• The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Event Driven IndexSM ended the month up 0.87%, underperforming the 1.76% return of the HFRX Event Driven Index.

• Credit strategies gained 31 basis points of return, while merger arbitrage strategies added 32 basis points of return, and multi-strategy event funds added 20 basis points of return.

• Managers that were long credit risk contributed positively as credit spreads tightened, offering a favorable environment for merger arbitrage strategies and special situation equity positions.