Opalesque spoke to four of the emerging managers whose fund feature in the Emanagers database, Opalesque's Solutions' database of funds launched in the last four years. Two CTAs, one global macro fund and one equity long/short fund, all profited from the volatile market of late 2011.

In December, global equity markets posted gains as both volatility levels and volumes fell, global government bonds rallied, commodities sold off (with gold losing 10%), credit markets rallied too, and investors continued to clamour for safe haven currencies, said a report from FRM, an independent hedge fund investment specialist, in early January. The report notes that there was a reduction in equity beta across the hedge fund industry. Fundamental strategies produced the largest losses as "the pronounced daily volatility since the summer has made conditions particularly difficult for deep value managers." The best performers were found in systematic trading.

The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Core Hedge Fund Index lost 0.41% in December (-7.40% for 2011); the Managed Futures strategy part of the index fared better with +1.82% (-2.95% for 2011); and so did Global Macro, with +0.38% (although not YTD as it is down 10%): and Long/ Short Equity did worse this month with -2.11% (-7.27% for 2011).

A Connecticut-based CTA called Global Sigma Group LLC did well in the volatile markets this year. "The options market fully priced in the volatile market condition in September," Hanming Rao, CIO, told Opalesque. "It was actually a very favorable environment for our short term trading model." The $15m fund, ......................

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This article was published in Opalesque's New Managers a top-down monthly analysis, news and research publication on the global emerging manager space.