Hedge Funds Have Best Month in Over Two Years, Eurekahedge Says

An index tracking global hedge funds recorded its best performance in almost two years in October as equities rose and commodities including gold and oil advanced, according to Eurekahedge.

The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index, which tracks the performance of 2,575 funds investing globally, gained 3.6 percent, the biggest advance since January 2006, according to preliminary figures compiled by Eurekahedge, a Singapore-based hedge-fund research and publishing company. The index rose 3.3 percent in September.

The MSCI World Index climbed 3 percent in October, helping managers of so-called long-short funds who bet on rising and falling stock prices, the Eurekahedge report said. Those managing commodity-related hedge funds also benefited as crude rose to a record and the price of gold jumped to the highest since 1980 amid a plunging dollar, the report said.

Regional indexes continued to rebound after the turmoil in the U.S. subprime loan market. The Eurekahedge North American Hedge Fund Index advanced 2.7 percent, while the one tracking European hedge funds added 2.1 percent.

In Asia, the Eurekahedge Japan Hedge Fund Index, which tracks 126 funds investing in Japan, climbed 0.6 percent. The index tracking hedge funds investing in Asia outside Japan jumped 4.7 percent.

Different data, compiled by Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc., showed hedge funds returned an average 3.2 percent in October, the biggest gain in almost two years, as rising stocks and bets against mortgage-backed securities helped firms including Pequot Capital Management Inc. and Passport Management LLC.

Hedge funds are private, largely unregulated pools of capital whose managers can buy or sell any assets and participate substantially in profits from money invested. Globally, managers oversee more than $1.8 trillion, according to Hedge Fund Research.
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