September's hedge fund performance numbers continue to reflect the buoyancy of the underlying market which has now seen a sustained rally of close to 13% since the low in early June. Not surprisingly September's best results came from Equity 130/30, Equity Long, and Equity Long/Short strategies, with Naos the best performer with a monthly return of 10.69% for its Emerging Companies Fund. For all performance details click here.
While on the subject of performance, a month ago we noted the four-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Bros, and the havoc which was to follow. For those of us old enough to remember, today marks the 25th anniversary of the October 1987 stock market crash which wiped 23% off the market's value in a single day. For a few years afterwards the market got the jitters each October for purely psychological reasons. Thankfully that phase has passed although not the tendency for investors to forget the meaning of risk after a few good years.
This week's economic data from China came in as expected, which probably surprised no one, least of all the cynics amongst us that note the almost uncanny resemblance between the Chinese government's projections and the actual numbers, particularly given the speed at which they are produced at quarter's end. However, even allowing for that healthy dose of cynicism, growth of close to 7.5% is nothing to be sneezed at. Anything less and we would undoubtably have all caught a cold.
This week we completed and released the latest AFM Review featuring one of BlackRock Australia's funds. Generally speaking Australia's best absolute return and hedge funds are dominated by boutique and home grown fund managers. As a result it is unusual to see an organisation the size of BlackRock, which globally manages US$3.65 trillion (of which $45 billion is Australian based) show up in AFM's top performing rankings. For the record the BlackRock Australian Equity Market Neutral Fund has an annualised return of 12.54% since inception in September 2001, with volatility of less than 6% and a Sharpe Ratio of 1.26. For a copy of AFM's Review, click here.
For this week's "and now for something completely different" a couple of English lads with too much time on their hands. They'll probably get (or may have got) top marks in their university exams however.
Have a good week-end.
Regards,
Chris.
