By Nell Mackenzie
LONDON (Reuters) – Global hedge funds posted positive results in August even as the unwind in popular yen carry trades whipsawed markets, bank research and sources familiar with the funds’ performance showed on Wednesday.
Hedge funds posted an average positive 1.3% return for the month, according to a prime brokerage research note from JPMorgan on Tuesday and seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
Some strategies performed better than others as, early in the month world stocks sank in response to U.S. recession concerns and as a surprise Japanese rate increase wrong-footed currency speculators. Equity markets later rebounded to near-record highs.
The Eureka Fund of British hedge fund Marshall Wace, co-founded by Paul Marshall, finished down 0.46% for August but was still almost 11% higher since the start of the year, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, asking not to be named.
The $68.4 billion hedge fund’s Market Neutral Tops fund, meanwhile, returned 1.72% in August, contributing to a 18.53% year-to-date gain.
Stock trading hedge funds relying on systematic algorithms to trade returned roughly 2% for the month to Aug. 30, JPMorgan said.
Multi-strategy hedge funds that house many different kinds of trading desks under one roof averaged 0.1% for the same period, the bank added.
British hedge fund firm Winton Capital, overseeing $12.3 billion, finished August down roughly 0.2% and 1.8% in its multi-strategy Winton Fund and its Diversified Macro Fund, respectively.
The multi-strategy Winton Fund, which uses quantitative trading, is up 8.1% for the year so far, whereas the Diversified Macro fund is up 4% for the same time period.
Hedge fund Schonfeld Strategic Advisors’ flagship fund Strategic Partners was up 1% in August and its Fundamental Equity fund gained 0.5%, Reuters reported on Tuesday.