Hedge Funds Gained 0.7% In August

by Carla Johnson, Investors Offshore.com

09 September 2005

The Van Global Hedge Fund Index gained 0.7% net of fees in August according to a preliminary report released on Wednesday by Van Money Manager Research.

"Positive returns were seen across strategies, led preliminarily by Distressed Securities and Short Selling," notes Kevin Campbell, Vice President of VAN.

"Long/Short Equity funds also performed well, in spite of losses in the U.S. equity markets," he added.

For comparison purposes, the U.S. equity markets performed poorly in August. The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq, and Russell 2000 lost 0.9%, 1.2%, 1.5%, and 1.9%, respectively.

Global equity markets, conversely, performed well with the Morgan Stanley Capital International World Equity Index, the Nikkei 225 and the Dow Jones Europe Stoxx Index gaining 0.6%, 4.3% and 0.9%, respectively. The Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index gained 1.3%.

The Van Global Hedge Fund Index has a preliminary year-to-date return through August of 4.3% net, better than all of the aforementioned indices. Since its inception in 1988 through to last month, the Index has produced a compound annualized return of 15.6% net.

An updated August return for the Van Global Hedge Fund Index, based on a larger sample of funds, will be released in mid-September.

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