By Angela McDaniels
Tacoma, Wash., Jan. 11 - Credit Suisse said early estimates indicate that the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund index will record a gain of 0.39% for December and 18.01% for 2009.
The figure is based on 62% of assets reporting, according to a company news release. The company will publish the final performance on Friday.
The company said 2009 marked the best year of the decade for hedge funds and the top-performing sectors included event driven, long/short equity, emerging markets and convertible arbitrage.
Event driven managers capitalized on their credit books as spreads in the high-yield and leveraged-loan markets tightened, and managers seized opportunities in select idiosyncratic distressed situations, Credit Suisse said.
Long/short equity and emerging markets experienced positive performance in the final month of the year, and the company attributed the performance largely to rallies in Japanese and some European equity markets. Following early gains, many managers took risk off the books as markets slowed down in the second half of the month, Credit Suisse added.
The company said a correction in gold and other precious metals resulted in losses in the global macro and managed futures sectors, and many macro managers were also adversely affected by the reversal in the dollar.
Quantitative funds experienced some of the steepest losses due to high levels of risk while discretionary managers posted better performances as many pared back risk toward the end of the year, Credit Suisse said.
Convertible arbitrage experienced its 12 consecutive month of gains to end the year as the best performer among hedge fund strategies, according to the company. The U.S. convertible bond market had a record return of 49% in 2009, as measured by the Merrill Lynch All US Convert index.
Credit Suisse Tremont Index LLC is a New York-based joint venture company of Credit Suisse Index Co., Inc., a subsidiary of Credit Suisse Co., Inc., and Tremont Group Holdings, Inc.
Strategy estimates
| Index/sector | December | November | 2009
|
| CS/Tremont Hedge Fund index | 0.39% | 2.11% | 18.01%
|
| Convertible arbitrage | 2.08% | 0.80% | 47.14%
|
| Dedicated short bias | Negative 4.00% | Negative 2.99% | Negative 24.82%
|
| Emerging markets | 2.18% | 1.37% | 30.29%
|
| Equity market neutral | Negative 1.66% | 0.08% | 3.23%
|
| Event driven | 1.91% | 2.16% | 19.95%
|
| Distressed | 1.99% | 2.08% | 20.34%
|
| Event driven multi-strategy | 1.87% | 2.26% | 19.62%
|
| Risk arbitrage | 1.23% | 1.03% | 12.96%
|
| Fixed income arbitrage | 1.39% | 1.71% | 28.20%
|
| Global macro | Negative 2.07% | 3.52% | 10.81%
|
| Long/short equity | 2.01% | 1.92% | 19.83%
|
| Managed futures | Negative 4.59% | 4.94% | Negative 6.18%
|
| Multi-strategy | 0.34% | 0.96% | 23.60%
|
| MSCI World | 1.69% | 3.87% | 26.98%
|
| Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond index | Negative 3.76% | 2.55% | 6.93%
|
| Dow Jones - UBS Commodity Index Total Return | 1.98% | 3.52% | 18.91%
|
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