Hedge Funds That Hedge Are Doing The Best

According to a Dow Jones Financial News article (subscription required) and data from Hedge Fund Research, equity market neutral hedge funds made 0.3 percent so far this month (to October 20th). Equity market neutral funds look to profit from the markets regardless of their direction, putting equal positions on share prices rising and falling, leaving the portfolio as a whole uncommitted to the general direction of the market. Market neutral hedge funds are also up 0.4 percent total for the year. Given that market neutral funds are one of the few funds that actually seem to employ hedging, it is often considered by some to be a pure play, or true hedge fund. Imagine that. A hedge fund that hedges, doing the best when the market is volatile. Then again, being flat is a little boring (albeit nice when the market is tanking).