Alternative

The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index was up +0.3% in March. 9 out of 11 Lyxor Indices ended the month in positive territory. The Lyxor LS Equity Long Bias Index (+2.3%), the Lyxor Fixed Income Arbitrage Index (+2.1%), and the Lyxor Special Situations Index (+1.4%) were the best performers.

According to Anthony Lawler, portfolio manager at GAM noted, the volatility year-to-date has proved challenging for active managers who were generally hurt in January and February before recovering with some gains in March. Many had trimmed exposures in January and early February before the rebound and were unable to benefit in size from the subsequent rally...

Over two thirds of respondents of the Deutsche Bank annual Alternative Investment Survey invest in systematic strategies, including one in every two who plan to add to one or more quantitative sub-strategies in 2016. The largest investment consultants and pension funds are driving demand: 45% of these respondents plan to add to one or more systematic strategies, including quantitative equity market neutral, CTA, quantitative macro, quantitative equity and quantitative multi-strategy.

The recent CTA performances encourage institutional investors to more closely monitor this type of hedge fund. Thus, according to Preqin, 52% of them wish to increase their exposure to this type of alternative strategy this year (vs 14% last year).

Year to date, most alternative strategy performance are negative. Despite this challenging environment, CTAs have recorded an excellent start since the beginning of the year. According to Credit Suisse, CTAs posted a gain of 7.38% in late February 2016, the strongest performance of all alternative strategies...