{"id":26330,"date":"2012-12-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-16T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/news\/alternative-strategies-generate-alpha-in-a-volatile-month\/"},"modified":"2012-12-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-16T23:00:00","slug":"alternative-strategies-generate-alpha-in-a-volatile-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/news\/alternative-strategies-generate-alpha-in-a-volatile-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternative strategies generate alpha in a volatile month"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rising uncertainty related to the U.S. fiscal cliff issue
\nfocused investors\u2019 attention in November.<\/strong> Risky assets started
\nthe month on the wrong foot amid mounting fears over policy
\nissues but rumors of progress on the fiscal cliff negotiations,
\nrising expectations of a solution for Greece (that materialized on
\n27 November) and to a lesser extent the smooth leadership
\ntransition in China helped equity markets recover the lost
\nground. Hedge fund managers navigated well in this context.<\/p>\n

Managers in the fixed-income space continued to perform well,
\namid further gains in sovereign and credit bonds.<\/strong> The Lyxor
\nFixed Income Arbitrage and L\/S Credit Arbitrage indices were
\nup respectively 1.2% and 1% in November. Managers
\nsucceeded in adding value, as dispersion increased, creating
\ntrading opportunities (US MBS, European sovereign debt\u2026).
\nAlso, the overall volatility backdrop remained supportive. Yearto-
\ndate, these two strategies clearly outperform their peers, the
\nFixed Income Index yielding 10.1%, and the Credit Arbitrage
\nIndex 9.2%. The Lyxor Convertible bond Arbitrage Index also
\nperformed nicely (+0.3 %) mainly driven by specific stories, and
\nis up 3.9 % year-to-date.<\/p>\n

Within the event driven strategies, funds focused on merger
\narbitrage (Lyxor Merger Arbitrage Index) returned 0.7% over the
\nmonth. <\/strong> Positive drivers included the improvement in business
\nconfidence and a sizeable increase in merger activity – the
\nnumber of deals was up roughly 40% in the U.S. over the past three months. The Lyxor Distressed Securities index and the
\nLyxor Special Situations Index were almost flat this month (+
\n0.1%).<\/p>\n

L\/S equity strategies also performed well this month.
\nVariable
\nbias managers who opportunistically increased net equity
\nexposure and were able to generate alpha on stock selection
\nstarted to catch up on underperformance.<\/quote>
\n The L\/S Equity
\nVariable bias Index gained 0.9% but is still down -0.6% year-todate.
\nOther strategies posted positive performances too: Long
\nbias (+0.5%), Statistical Arbitrage (+0.7%), Market Neutral
\n(+0.9%).<\/p>\n

The economic news flow confirmed the encouraging data seen
\nduring October, with growing signs that the global industrial
\ncycle has bottomed, and that activity is strengthening in the
\nU.S. and in Asia.<\/strong> Despite these receding economic risks and
\nthe ample liquidity provided by Central Banks, CTA and Global
\nMacro managers as a whole recorded disappointing
\nperformances. The lack of persistent trends and elevated
\npolitical uncertainties continued to undermine performance. The
\nLyxor CTA Short Term lost -1.8% and CTA Long Term Indices
\nwas almost flat (+0.1%) during the period under review. The
\nLyxor Global Macro Index appreciated (+0.5%) thanks to
\nrewarding bets on commodities and currencies at the end of
\nthe month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe note a broadening of strategies participating in rising
\nmarkets. The top decile of funds on the Lyxor MAP are all up in
\ndouble digit territory, and they belong to six different strategies.
\nThis is a remarkable change compared to last year, when
\ncomputer-driven systems dominated the rankings.\u201d<\/em> says Stefan
\nKeller, Head of Managed Account Platform Research & External
\nRelations at Lyxor AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thirteen Lyxor Strategy Indices out of 14 ended the month
\nin positive territory, led by the Fixed Income Arbitrage (+1.2%),
\nthe Lyxor Long\/Short Credit Arbitrage Index (+1%) and the L\/S
\nEquity – Market Neutral Index (+0.9%). The Lyxor Hedge Fund
\nIndex posted a positive performance at 0.4% in November
\n(+2% in 2012 to date)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":26328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1470],"tags":[1809,1687,1743,1655,1723,1690,1699,1651,1437,1662,1672],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26330"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}