According to the Pivotal Point Of View – a monthly research report from PivotalPath, which measures performance among 2,600+ institutionally-relevant hedge funds – performance rose 0.5% in April, bringing the Composite Index to 1.8% for the year.
While this trails returns generated by the S&P and NASDAQ, volatility remains historically low. The S&P 500 generated volatility of 22.0% vs. 3.9% for the Composite – or 5.6X. For context, this ratio is in the 95th percentile of rolling 12-month periods going back to 1998.
Q1 2023 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Below are a few quick highlights.
- Hedge Funds overall were positive for the month with over 2/3 reporting positive returns (average +1.9%) and 1/3 in negative territory (average -1.8%). YTD, the same ratio holds true with 67% positive (average +5.4%) and 33% negative (average -4%). Equity Sector and Equity Diversified continue to lead all indices, up 4.0% and 3.4%, respectively.
- PivotalPath’s proprietary Dispersion Indicator fell in April to the lowest level since July of 2019. On average YTD, it remains historically elevated ranking in the 69th percentile of months dating back to January of 2008.
- Larger funds outperformed smaller ones in April primarily due to the recovery of large managers within Managed Futures and Macro strategies.
