In the current more volatile market environment, Alternative UCITS funds become increasingly popular with investors that seek diversifying return streams. Assets under Management for the total universe advanced again with +5BEUR in April to reach 465BEUR, another record high.

In line with a clear trend that started in January, investors mainly increased their exposure to portfolio diversifiers such as Discretionary Macro (AUM +12%) and Alternative Risk Premia (AUM +3.5%) strategies. Despite a very rough start to 2018, allocations to CTA’s (the ultimate de-correlating strategy) also increased with +1% during April. Where Equity Long/Short funds stayed roughly equal in assets (AUM -0.3%), the more prudent Equity Market Neutral funds are clearly more sought after in the current environment, increasing their AUM with +2.7% on average.

After a difficult start to 2018, many Alternative UCITS funds recovered in performance during April. The LuxHedge Global Alternative UCITS index advanced with +0.22%, bringing 2018 YTD to -0.47%. Most strategies did well, most notably Equity Long/Short Europe (+0.94%) and Discretionary Macro (+1.20%). Dispersion amongst Alternative UCITS funds stays very large: where the worst fund of the month returned -7%, the top performer gained well over +10%.

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