Hedge funds excelled in December, with most Absolute Return indices up and many exceeding broader market benchmarks. Overall, the HedgeFund Intelligence Global Composite Index gained 1.01%. U.S. equity funds rose 1.35%, beating the 0.91% return of the S&P 500.
Every Americas hedge fund strategy tracked by the database made money for the month. Particularly strong subsets included event driven, credit and Latin American debt and equity. Even commodities funds, which suffered by any metric a hellish 2012, managed to eke out a positive month, returning 0.30%.
Note: These indices were accurate as of Jan 9. For the most recent performance statistics, please click on the links in the table below to the individual databases. For a complete list of the top performing funds in each strategy, please visit the HedgeFund Intelligence database.
Absolute Return Indices
HedgeFund Intelligence Indices
Median Hedge Fund Returns by region
Global Benchmarks
| Index | December | YTD |
| MSCI World Index | 1.88% | 15.83% |
| Dow Jones Industrial Average | 0.60% | 7.26% |
S&P 500*
| 0.91% | 15.99% |
| NASDAQ Composite | 0.31% | 15.91% |
| MSCI Europe Index | 1.38% | 15.61% |
| MSCI Pacific Free Index | 4.11% | 14.42% |
* total return
About HedgeFund Intelligence
HedgeFund Intelligence is the largest provider of hedge fund news and data in the world, offering a range of products to the global hedge fund industry, its investors and related companies. Our publications include AsiaHedge, EuroHedge, InvestHedge, Absolute Return and Absolute UCITS, which together provide comprehensive global coverage of hedge funds and their investors. Our databases list information on nearly 15,000 hedge funds and funds of funds worldwide, allowing subscribers to search and sort by performance, size, investment terms, vendors employed and many other criteria. Using the performance reported by funds in our databases, HFI produces free hedge fund indices that are the industry's most accurate benchmarks. Our frequent special reports include in-depth analyses of various regions and sectors. Our conferences are renowned for the quality of the speakers and programming, and our objectively-determined annual awards are regarded as the most prestigious and accurate recognition of risk-adjusted performance.
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