Should you still back hedge funds?

Last month, every single hedge-fund strategy lost money. So much for their being able to make money in any market. So, should you still be investing in them? Tim Bennett has been doing the research.

So much for all the promises about being able to make money in any market. Last month, every single hedge-fund strategy lost money, according to Hedge Funds Research (HFR). The average fund finished the month down 2.26% or 2.99% if you use the Hennessee Hedge Fund Index. Some individual funds fared far worse: respected brands such as Moore Capital, Odey Asset Management and BlueCrest posted losses of up to 10%. This was the worst collective performance since November 2008, just after Lehman Brothers collapsed. So what went wrong?

Where it all began

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Tim graduated with a history degree from Cambridge University in 1989 and, after a year of travelling, joined the financial services firm Ernst and Young in 1990, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1994.

He then moved into financial markets training, designing and running a variety of courses at graduate level and beyond for a range of organisations including the Securities and Investment Institute and UBS. He joined MoneyWeek in 2007.