{"id":26678,"date":"2013-01-14T00:59:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-13T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/news\/alternatives-end-2012-on-a-high-note\/"},"modified":"2013-01-14T00:59:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-13T23:59:00","slug":"alternatives-end-2012-on-a-high-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/news\/alternatives-end-2012-on-a-high-note\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternatives end 2012 on a high note"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hedge funds benefited from comforting macro news flow<\/strong> and
\nthe Lyxor Hedge Fund index gained 1.1% over December,
\nbringing year-to-date performance to 3.1%. The headline
\nnumbers hide an even more positive picture. A growing number
\nof funds have participated in rising markets and 20% of the
\nfunds in the Lyxor investment universe are up double digits in
\n2012.<\/p>\n

Supported by bullish credit markets and many opportunities
\nin sovereign debt, L\/S Credit managers clearly exceeded
\nexpectations in 2012.<\/strong> The Lyxor L\/S Credit Arbitrage Index
\nranked first among Lyxor indices and staged a 12.1% return
\nwith less than 3% volatility.<\/quote><\/p>\n

L\/S Equity Long Bias managers were quite successful in
\ncapturing the bulk of equities\u2019 performance with a much lower
\nrisk profile.<\/strong> By contrast, the Lyxor L\/S Equity Variable Bias index
\nlost 0.5% over the year as many managers were slow to add
\nexposure during risk-on periods. The abnormally low cross
\nsectional equity dispersion also impaired market neutral L\/S
\nEquity strategies whether discretionary or systematic. Following
\nnegative returns in December, the Lyxor L\/S Equity Market
\nNeutral Index and Lyxor L\/S Equity Statistical Arbitrage Index
\nmodestly advanced 2.9% and 2.8% respectively over 2012.<\/p>\n

Merger Arbitrage strategies surprised to the upside in
\nDecember with the Lyxor Merger Arbitrage Index staging a
\n2.96% return thanks to three major deals that found positive
\noutcomes.<\/strong> With the December gain, the Lyxor Merger Arbitrage
\nIndex closed the year up 6%, providing steady returns with a conservative budget risk in 2012. Special Sits managers gained
\ntraction as well in December amid the buoyant share buyback
\nactivity. The Lyxor Special Situations Index was up 1.4% over
\nthe month, which pushed 2012 performance to 4.9%. Though
\nDistressed strategies stalled as a whole in December, they
\noffered the best yearly return among event driven strategies, as
\nshown by the 6.5% rise in the Lyxor Distressed Securities
\nIndex.<\/p>\n

The Convertible Arbitrage strategy remained a credit play rather
\nthan volatility-related theme.<\/strong> Convertible issuance, a major
\nsource of revenue for Convertible Arbitrage funds continued to
\ndecline in 2012 to reach about $20 billion after $25bn in 2011
\nand $35bn in 2010, weighing on performance. The Lyxor
\nConvertible Bonds & Volatility Arbitrage Index advanced 4.5%
\nover 2012.<\/p>\n

A more favorable positioning translated into a 1.4% gain in the
\nLyxor Global Macro Index over December.<\/strong> Generally, Macro
\nfunds turned net long equity towards year end and kept
\nconcentrating their overall long interest rate exposure on Europe
\nwhere the ongoing convergence among Eurozone nations
\noffered attractive opportunities. Performance for the year hardly
\nreached 4%.<\/p>\n

CTAs stabilized in December after struggling during most of the
\nyear.<\/strong> The Lyxor CTA Short Term and Long Term indices
\ndropped 4% and 6.7% respectively in 2012. The poor
\nperformance can be traced back to a number of factors: the
\nlack of lasting trends; the high correlation levels between asset
\nclasses; the many turnarounds in foreign exchange markets;
\nmisplaced bets on precious metals.<\/p>\n

\u201cManagers have now implemented their constructive views
\nabout the start of 2013 and have put risk back on the table.
\nNet long positions in Financials in L\/S Equity portfolios and a
\nmajority of single-B rated papers among Credit Arbitrageurs\u2019
\nholdings are testimony to this\u201d<\/em> says Stefan Keller, Head of
\nManaged Account Platform Research & External Relations at
\nLyxor AM.<\/quote><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index was up +3.1% in 2012 (+1.1% in December). Twelve Lyxor Strategy Indices out of 14 ended the month in positive territory, led by the Merger Arbitrage Index (+3%) and the Long\/Short Credit Arbitrage Index (+2.6%). Over the year, eleven Lyxor Strategy Indices out of 14 posted positive performances, three of them being up double digits: Long\/Short Credit Arbitrage Index (+12.1%), Long\/Short Equity Long Bias (+11.2%) and Fixed Income Arbitrage (+10.5%).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":26676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1470],"tags":[1687,1743,1655,1723,1690,1651,1662,1672],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26678"}],"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=26678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}