March was one of the worst months for hedge funds in years - all of the median categories were badly down, rounding off what has proved to be a miserable first quarter, with the InvestHedge Composite at -3.34% for the year to date.

For the month of March, only 71 out of 1,933 funds of funds that reported were in positive territory and many of those only just. The strategies that had the majority of higher performers include the South African funds of funds in the emerging markets category, while there were 12 positive funds in the global macro universe and 17 in the asset-based lending fund of hedge funds group.