Herschel attributes their Absolute Return Fund's gain of 0.66% in February to stocks including Ten Network, Westpac, BHP Billiton and Seek. On the negative side were Toll Holdings, Chemgenex Pharmaceuticals and Qantas.

Optimal's Australia Absolute Trust Fund was up 0.5% in February which the manager partially attributes to identifying a number of earnings surprises, both positive and negative.

Prodigal's Equity RV fund shone again in February, generating a return of +1.9% for the month after gaining 2.45% in January. The manager attributes the fund's strong performance over the last two months to mean reversion from the wide...

The Austral Equity Fund returned +1.28% in a month where volatility in indivudual securities was very high as the market responded to the release of earnings reports and economic outlooks.

Excalibur believes that their Absolute Return Fund is well positioned for the year ahead after achieving a positive result of 0.53% in January.

Optimal Japan's Absolute Long Fund generated a positive return of 2.58% in January as many funds with a focus on Japan outperformed funds with an Australian bias.

The Ascalon Income Fund lost 1.24% in January against its benchmark (1 year swap +0.75%) return of 0.39% and the ASX200s return of -6.18%.

January was difficult month for all Commodities/CTA managers and Agrgus Capital Management's Dynamic Multi-Strategy Fund was no exception, falling 8.14% in the month.

Prodigal attributes most of the rise in their Equity RV fund in January of 2.45% to the mean reversion of spreads that had widened late last year.

Fortitude Capital's Absolute Return Trust generated a positive return of 0.44% in January with the fund's Mergers and Acquisitions portfolio making the largest contribution, in which the fund's largest position remains in Indophil resources.