Credit Suisse Endorses Hedge Funds in Cautious Start to Year

Paul Adams

14 February 2007

The long and short term outlook for hedge funds makes them a favorable investment vehicle in both bull and bear markets compared to their traditional counterparts that represent a single asset class, according to Credit Suisse Index Co in a new report, The Hedge Fund Industry Rocks Both Bear and Bull Markets. "The unique added value of hedge funds is their ability to produce attractive risk adjusted returns across a range of asset classes over a short and long term investment horizon, independent of broad market trends," said Oliver Schupp, President of Credit Suisse Index Co. As for this year’s hedge fund performance, early estimates show the HFN Hedge Fund Aggregate Average, an equal weighted average of all single manager hedge funds and CTA/managed futures products in the HedgeFund.net database, was up 1.45 per cent in January 2007, slightly below the S&P 500 TR which was up 1.51 per cent. Managers may be taking a more cautionary stance this year as January was the first year-opening month since 2001 in which the average hedge fund underperformed the S&P TR. The HedgeFund.net database consists of over 7,000 current hedge funds, funds of funds, and CTA products.