Recently, the performance data of US hedge funds in the first half of the year has been successively disclosed. According to the authoritative data company HFR, the overall investment performance of US hedge funds in the first half of the year is significantly lower than the performance of the S&P 500 index.
Specifically, according to HFR's data, the overall return rate of US hedge funds in the first half of this year was only 5%, and the overall performance in June was negative. Among all investment strategies, the investment performance of event-driven strategies is particularly weak. At the same time, the S&P 500 index rose 15% during the same period, showing one of the strongest performances in the history of the index.
Morgan Stanley strategist Meany (Bill Meany) wrote in a research report to clients on July 1: "With the end of the first half of 2024, the returns of hedge funds with most investment strategies are in the single digits. From the alpha (excess investment returns) perspective, the past six to eight weeks have been challenging." According to Morgan Stanley's data, the performance of North American hedge funds using a multi-asset strategy in June was only 0.4%, which means their performance was only 10% of the benchmark S&P 500 index. Meany said this performance may be disappointing because hedge funds often tout "star stock pickers" and "boutique strategies" to prove that the high management fees they charge are justified. Hedge funds usually charge 2% of managed assets and 20% of fund profits as performance fees.
According to Goldman's main brokerage platform, hedge funds have been sequentially exiting tech stocks, especially in the past few weeks, with hedge funds selling large-cap stocks sharply in the past few weeks and buying financial stocks and commodity stocks.