Hedge Fund Assets Flow Into Long-Short Equity and Fixed Income Strategies in May

Hedge funds posted their first inflows in nine months (see BarclayHedge article, free registration required). Based on a survey of over 1,200 hedge funds, it is estimated that the hedge fund industry gained $1.4 billion in May, or 0.1% of total assets. Nonetheless, funds-of-funds and CTAs are still experiencing outflows. Fund-of-funds, which did not do as good a job as expected picking hedge funds in order to justify their extra layer of fees, lost $5.2 billion, or 1.0% of assets in May. This makes their twelfth straight monthly outflow. Below is the hedge fund asset flow data by strategy for May 2009 (source: BarclayHedge, see article, free registration required). Next to fund-of-funds and managed futures, event driven strategies saw the biggest outflows. Equity long-short, fixed income, and multi-strategies saw the biggest inflows.