Indices and Reports

Hedge funds inched up last month, but still badly trail the broader markets with just a month to go in 2010.

The third quarter of 2010 saw the launch of 260 new hedge funds—up from 201 launches in Q2, according to Hedge Fund Research.

Hedge fund liquidations fell to 168 in Q3 from 177 in the previous quarter. This brings the total number of liquidated funds in 2010 to 585, down 31.8% over the same period in 2009. HFR notes that this is the fifth consecutive quarter in which launches outnumbered liquidations.

The majority of the 100 alternative assets fund managers and investors polled by the Preqin research group harbors “significant resentment” against the EU’s new rules for alternative investment fund managers.

Demand for seed capital has risen and institutional hedge fund investors are showing an increasing willingness to meet it, according to the latest survey from the Preqin research group.

Expect a surge of hedge fund money into the commodities market next year, if hedge fund managers themselves are to be believed.

The hedge fund industry employs an estimated 300,000 people worldwide, according to the calculations of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA).

Not surprisingly, the bulk of those hedge fund jobs—240,000—is in North America; 50,000 are in Europe; and 10,000 in Asia-Pacific.

Another major hedge fund index shows that hedge funds rose last month, rather than fell, as some early benchmarks indicated.

Hedge funds lost some ground last month, dragged down by several strategies that took it on the chin in November, according to Dow Jones Indexes and Credit Suisse.

IndexIQ's suite of hedge fund replication and alternative beta indices tracked the hedge fund index to a loss in November.

There's a split among hedge fund indices for November. While the earliest reporters announced a fairly substantial loss for the average hedge fund, two other industry benchmarks show a small gain for the industry.