BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research reported that the hedge fund industry redeemed a scant US$40 million in July, the first monthly outflow of the year, after taking in US$5.1 billion (0.2% of assets) in June.
"While hedge fund flows were essentially flat in July, inflows in the first seven months of the year totaled $80.1 billion, the highest inflows from January through July since 2007," said Sol Waksman, president and founder of BarclayHedge. The industry took in $35.0 billion in the same period in 2013.
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Industry assets rose to a six-year high of $2.33 trillion in July, according to estimates based on data from 3,468 funds. Assets climbed 18.0% in the past 12 months but were down 4.5% from the all-time high of $2.4 trillion in June 2008.
The monthly TrimTabs/BarclayHedge Hedge Fund Flow Report noted that the hedge fund industry lost 0.5% in July. While this performance was the lowest in the past 11 months, it was better than the S&P 500’s 1.5% loss. In the past 12 months, hedge funds returned 8.4%, while the S&P 500 gained 16.9%.
"Emerging Markets funds delivered the best returns in July, rising 0.7% and outperforming all other fund categories, but they also had the month’s largest outflows, redeeming $1.9 billion," said Waksman.
The monthly TrimTabs/BarclayHedge Survey of Hedge Fund Managers finds bullish sentiment on U.S. stocks rose to a five-month high in August, though conviction was not strong: 38.5% of managers were bullish on the S&P 500 over the next 30 days, 28.1% were bearish, and 33.3% were neutral. Just over half of the managers expected equities to outperform bonds and precious metals in the next six months, the first reading above 50% this year. Managers were less optimistic on gold prices and more optimistic on crude oil prices than they were in July’s survey.
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By GlobalDataThe TrimTabs/BarclayHedge database tracks hedge fund flows on a monthly basis. The TrimTabs/BarclayHedge Hedge Fund Flow Report provides detailed analysis of these flows as well as relevant topical studies.
