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Fairfield, Iowa, May 10, 2005 -- The Barclay Group released today the Barclay Index Flash Estimates for April 2005. Barclay is the world's leading provider of hedge fund and managed futures data.
With more than 1000 funds already reporting an April return, the Barclay/Global HedgeSource Hedge Fund Index is down 1.51 percent for the month. The Index also lost 0.83 percent in March following eight months of steady gains. This is just the second time in the past three years the Index has lost money two months in a row.
"Although Equity Long/Short funds and Equity Long Biased funds, which represent almost one-third of hedge fund industry assets, lost money in April," says Sol Waksman, president of The Barclay Group, "these sectors continue to outperform the broader market sectors represented by the S&P 500 Index and the Russell 2000 Growth Index. Many hedge strategies were also hurt by a widening of credit spreads as investors demanded higher returns for holding riskier assets."
Overall, 16 of 18 hedge fund strategies lost money in April. Convertible Arbitrage dropped 3.71 percent, and is down 7.13 percent for the year. The Technology Index fell 3.03 percent in April, down 5.76 percent for the year.
Only two of Barclay's indexes showed gains for April. Equity Short Bias gained 3.56 percent, and is up 11.52 percent for the first four months of 2005. Fixed Income Arbitrage gained 0.49 percent.
Visit www.barclaygrp.com to view or download seven years of Barclay/GHS Hedge Fund Index data, or 18 years of Barclay BTOP 50 Index data.
For more commentary, call Sol Waksman at 641-472-3456; or email sol@barclayhedge.com.
The Barclay Group, founded in 1985, actively tracks more than 4300 hedge funds and managed futures programs. The Barclay CTA Index, the Carr-Barclay Index, and the Barclay BTOP50 Index are utilized worldwide as performance benchmarks for the managed futures industry
