Mubasher: 2017 could be the best year for hedge funds since 2013 thanks to a gravity-defying stock market, Bloomberg said in a recent report.
The improving performance could be attributed to assuaging criticism for fees that are hard to justify with mediocre returns, even though on average the funds underperformed equity benchmarks including the S&P 500 Index, which is up 15.7% year-to-date, the report noted.
The strategies deployed by equity funds skewed toward health care and technology, according to global data compiled by Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research (HFR) through the beginning of November, didn’t match the 36% return for the S&P 500 Tech Index over the same time.
According to Hedge Fund Research, funds that take short positions suffered the steepest losses.
Macro-trading funds betting on broad economic trends, beset by outflows this year, also posted sub-par returns, Bloomberg noted.
