Arbitrage

According to Lyxor Cross Asset Research, most strategies were up in Q1, with Event-Driven outperforming and CTAs underperforming. Within Event-Driven, special situations funds are leading the pack.

The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index was marginally down last week. Lower oil prices and a weaker dollar contributed to the underperformance of Macro funds. However, they limited damages after building-up substantial long EM FX positions prior to the FOMC (as a result, their net overall USD exposure dropped by a third)...

The Lyxor Event-Driven index is now up for the fifth consecutive week in a row, and has outperformed other hedge fund strategies on a year to date basis. This is in line with our expectations to the extent that we have had the strategy at overweight over recent quarters.

Markets have gone back and forth while assessing the prospects for Trump’s economic plans and the timing of U.S. rate hikes. Last week, risk assets in DM and EM progressed, stirred by supportive data and Trump’s plans to unveil a “phenomenal” tax policy. Most hedge funds headed north.

H2O Barry Active Value and H2O Barry Short, both Irish UCITS, are the first funds specifically designed to address the problems associated with the current scarcity of liquidity in the marketplace following the regulatory crackdown on financial institutions.