29/03/18

Hedge funds see huge surge of investor cash

(New York Post) -- The stock market may hate volatility but hedge funds are loving it — at least the part that includes attracting truckloads of investor cash.

Investors put $11.9 billion into the now-$3.3 trillion hedge fund industry in February, according to a report by eVestment.

Combined with the nearly $10 billion added to the industry in January, the inflows over the past two months mark the steepest increase since 2014.

Such interest could bode well for the hedge fund industry, which has come under attack in recent years as cheaper index funds have outperformed the expensive asset class.

“February flows have historically set the stage for what to expect for the full year,” eVestment said in its report.

“In 2016, when the industry experienced its first annual net outflow since 2009, allocations in that February were the lightest since, well, February 2009,” it added.

While equity strategies were hot last year — as the market soared to new highs — this year’s hedge fund investors are so far favoring macro strategies, with more than half of the new hedge fund money going into the strategy.

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