After a tough start to 2017, Macro UCITS strategies began to recover during the summer months. In line with the broader hedge fund market, performance in this category was led by CTA / Managed futures funds progressing +1.06% during the month of August, still showing -2.19% YTD losses. Also the relatively smaller group of Currency Arbitrage UCITS funds showed positive performance for the first time in 2017, advancing +0.47% .

Tracking the average fund performance, the LuxHedge Global Alternative UCITS Index continues to grow at moderate pace with a performance of +0.16% during August (+1.32% YTD). Alternative UCITS Fund of Funds tend to correlate strongly with the global index and advanced +0.01% (+1.53% YTD).

Performance of Equity Hedge strategies was mixed during August with the Equity Long/Short Europe UCITS index declining -0.22% (+1.97% YTD). Also Event driven and Merger Arbitrage funds lost ground during the month -0.23% (+4.47% YTD), the first decline since October 2016.

Other Equity Hedge indices advanced during August with the Equity Market Neutral UCITS index gaining +0.33% (2.23% YTD) and Equity Long/Short US progressing +0.91% (+5.61% YTD). For Asia oriented long/short funds, the trend of strong performance continued with the Equity Long/Short Asia UCITS index gaining +1.86% during August (+18.20% YTD).

In line with July results, Fixed Income Arbitrage and Multi Strategy funds continued to perform relatively flat in August: Fixed Income Arbitrage UCITS -0.02% (+1.34% YTD) and Multi Strategy UCITS +0.12% (+0.50% YTD). The smallest category of Commodity Arbitrage funds recorded a firm advance during August with +1.77% (YTD +0.63%), recuperating the losses since the start of 2017.

Alternative UCITS funds as a whole continued to gain in popularity with investors and asset inflow  remains strong and consistent. Total Assets Under Management have reached 442BEUR by end of August, another monthly increase of +1.0% versus last month.

For further details, click here for the full August 2017 market overview