FAIRFIELD, IOWA MARCH 22, 2022

The hedge fund industry returned to inflows in January bringing in $11.29 billion in new assets, 0.24% of hedge fund industry assets, according to the Barclay Fund Flow Indicator published by BarclayHedge, a division of Backstop Solutions.

Industry AUM was relatively flat month-over-month. It continued to hover around the $4.80 Trillion mark. December 2021 outflows were followed by broadly felt pain in January, which resulted in roughly -$117.92 billion in trading losses. This meant that even relatively enthusiastic subscription behavior during the month could only partially backfill the losses.

“End of year profit-taking, tax-harvesting and rebalancing in December 2021 broke an impressive nine-month run of net inflows to the hedge fund industry. Happily, January marked a return to net inflows, albeit in a somewhat more circumspect manner: Investors gave over an additional $11.29 billion to managers on the month,” observed Ben Crawford, Head of Research at BarclayHedge. “It is notable, however, that January 2022’s net inflows were less than 40% of the industry’s uptake a year ago and also well below the mean monthly inflow from 2021.”

Hedge fund subsectors were nearly evenly split between inflows and redemptions in January. On the inflow side of the ledger, Multi-Strategy funds led the way with $9.19 billion in inflows, 1.86% of assets. Emerging Markets – Asia funds attracted $2.89 billion, 1.46% of assets, Sector Specific funds brought in $2.58 billion, 0.56% of assets, Merger Arbitrage funds saw $1.19 billion in inflows, 1.26% of assets, and Equity Long Bias funds added $1.09 billion, 0.29% of assets.

Hedge fund subsectors experiencing monthly redemptions included Balanced (Stocks & Bonds) funds with $2.43 billion in outflows, 0.32% of assets, Emerging Markets – Global funds with $1.76 billion in redemptions, 0.79% of assets, Fixed Income funds shedding $913.89 million, 0.09% of assets, Equity Long-Only funds with $837.37 million in outflows, 0.28% of assets, and Macro funds with $691.91 million in redemptions, 0.34% of assets.

The managed futures industry posted its third consecutive month of redemptions in January with $1.40 billion in outflows, though three of four CTA subsectors reported monthly inflows. Discretionary CTAs brought in $139.99 million, 0.78% of assets, Hybrid CTAs added $103.59 million, 0.54% of assets, and Multi Advisor Futures funds saw $100.87 million in inflows, 0.78% of assets.

Systematic CTAs were the lone managed futures subsector experiencing net redemptions in January with $1.70 billion in outflows, 0.54% of assets.

12-Month Flow Trends

The number of hedge fund subsectors posting 12-month inflows grew from 12 to 13 in January, making for a supermajority of subsectors where subscriptions have outpaced redemptions. Fixed Income funds led the way adding $60.68 billion, 6.94% of assets, over the period while Multi-Strategy funds saw $44.68 billion in inflows, 12.12% of assets, and Sector Specific funds attracted $38.40 billion, 12.72% of assets. Equity Long-Only funds experienced $19.23 billion in January inflows, 9.07% of assets, Emerging Markets – Asia funds attracted $15.05 billion, 8.86% of assets, Event Driven funds attracted $14.80 billion, 6.70% of assets, and Merger Arbitrage funds brought in $11.88 billion, 13.44% of assets.

Subsectors recording 12-month outflows included Balanced (Stocks & Bonds) funds with $21.26 billion in redemptions, 3.61% of assets, Emerging Markets – Global funds shedding $11.81 billion, 9.19% of assets, Macro funds with $7.81 billion in outflows, 4.15% of assets, Equity Long Bias funds with $5.23 billion in outflows, 1.52% of assets, and Equity Market Neutral funds with $1.98 billion in redemptions, 3.63% of assets.

Over the 12-months through January, the managed futures industry saw $886.55 million in inflows. A $28.05 billion trading profit over the period brought total industry assets to the $348.44 billion figure at the end of January, up from $346.57 billion at the end of December and $302.73 billion a year earlier.

Discretionary CTAs experienced $2.69 billion in inflows over the 12-month period, 20.27% of assets, Hybrid CTAs added $1.67 billion, 16.75% of assets, and Multi Advisor Futures Funds brought in $1.18 billion, 11.01% of assets.

Systematic CTAs were the only subsector experiencing 12-month redemptions with $3.54 billion in outflows, 1.26% of assets.

About Backstop Solutions

Backstop’s mission is to help the institutional investment industry use time to its fullest potential. We develop technology to simplify and streamline otherwise time-consuming tasks and processes, enabling our clients to quickly and easily access, share and manage the knowledge that’s critical to their day-to-day business success. Backstop provides its industry-leading cloud-based productivity suite to investment consultants, pensions, funds of funds, family offices, endowments, foundations, private equity, hedge funds and real estate investment firms.

BarclayHedge, a division of Backstop, currently maintains data on more than 6,900 hedge funds, funds of funds and CTAs. Institutional investors, brokerage firms and private banks worldwide utilize BarclayHedge indices as performance benchmarks for the hedge fund and managed futures industries.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Janet Falk

(212) 677 5770

janet@janetlfalk.com