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While disappointing on the face of it, the aggregate figure is well ahead of global/balanced-market benchmarks, potentially highlighting the value of hedge funds in a balanced portfolio and as an investment vehicle during the period of unexpected volatility that world markets have been facing for much of this still-young year.

"This is a defining time for many managers," said eVestment Head of Research Peter Laurelli. "March is going to continue to see unprecedented volatility. Ffor some hedge fund managers this period will be a career maker."

Returns in February were highly mixed from even the largest reporting managers. A handful of the industry's most notable funds produced losses that were of their highest magnitude in several years, while a smaller segment produced similarly outsized gains.

Some interesting points from the new data include:

Event Driven/Activist strategies, posting returns of -8.17% in February, experienced the largest declines in February, with average losses over twice as large as Long/Short Equity managers, which posted aggregate losses of -4.03%.

Macro and Managed Futures funds (at -1.44% and -1.29% respectively) produced average returns that while negative, belied the range of gains and losses each segment produced during the month. For macro funds, roughly 30% produced average gains of +4.22%, while the remaining 70% produced losses of -4.37%. Managed Futures had slightly less widely dispersed returns (+3.24% and -3.84%) and better breakdown of those able to be positive during the month (37% positive).

The best concentrations of positive returns came from FX/Currency managers who were +1.22% during the month with 63% positive, and then from managers operating in Volatility markets where 57% of managers produced gains in February. There were some exceptionally large losses and gains within the Volatility segment, however, which skew the average returns more negative than was generally the case for the group.

China-focused funds were big performance winners in February, posting gains of +2.85% last month. Russia-focused funds, on the other hand, were sharply negative in February, with these funds posting aggregate returns of -8.04%.