Kettera Strategies Heat Map - August 2019
Many (but not all) of the equities-based strategies we track – both L/S equities programs and market neutral strategies - seemed to have a challenging month, given the choppy sideways markets of August.
For systematic trend following strategies, however, August delivered the same headline as last month: They once again continued their strong performance. The Societe Generale Trend Index is now at or around the 20% YTD level. Long fixed income trades and (various directional) commodities positions appeared to drive the bulk of the performance, in what appears to be this strategy’s best year since 2008. Equities indices appeared to be either inconsequential or slightly negative for most programs.
Short-term and higher-frequency programs generally fared well for the third month in a row, with some exceptions for managers with longer holding periods.
The performance of global macro programs varied by market concentration and style (model-driven vs discretionary). Quant and model-driven strategies capitalized once again on fixed income moves, while discretionary managers were more mixed.
Currency specialists also continued their performance run. Not as much a banner month as June, but for many programs it came close. One theme among programs trading G10 was the profitability of positions in JPY-based crossrates.
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For the “style classes” and “baskets” presented in this letter: The “style baskets” referenced above were created by Kettera for research purposes to track the category and are classifications drawn by Kettera Strategies in their review of programs on and for the Hydra Platform. The arrows represent the style basket’s overall performance for the month (e.g. the sideways arrow indicates that the basket was largely flat overall, a solid red down arrow indicates the basket (on average) was largely negative compared to most months, etc.). The “style basket” for a class is created from monthly returns (net of fees) of programs that are either: programs currently or formerly on Hydra; or under review with an expectation of being added to Hydra. The weighting of a program in a basket depends upon into which of these three groups the program falls. Style baskets are not investible products or index products being offered to investors. They are meant purely for analysis and comparison purposes. These also were not created to stimulate interest in any underlying or associated program. Nonetheless, as these research tools may be regarded to be “hypothetical” combinations of managers, hypothetical performance results have many inherent limitations, some of which are described below. No representation is being made that any product or account will achieve profits or losses similar to those shown. In fact, there are frequently sharp differences between hypothetical performance results and the actual results subsequently achieved by any particular trading program. One of the limitations of hypothetical results is that they are generally prepared with the benefit of hindsight. In addition, hypothetical trading does not involve financial risk, and no hypothetical trading record can completely account for the impact of financial risk in actual trading. There are numerous other factors related to the markets in general or to the implementation of any specific trading program which cannot be fully accounted for in the preparation of hypothetical performance results and all of which can adversely affect actual trading results.
Benchmark sources:
1-The Hedge Fund Intelligence Global Macro Index and HFI Currency Index can be found at: https://data.hfm.global/funds4/public/indices/default.aspx
2-The Societe Generale Trend Index and SG CTA Index can be found at: https://cib.societegenerale.com/en/prime-services-indices/
3-The Societe General Short-term Traders Index: (same link as above)
4-The EurekaHedge AI Hedge Fund Index https://www.eurekahedge.com/Indices/IndexView/Eurekahedge/683/Eurekahedge_AI_Hedge_fund_Index
5-The BarclayHedge Currency Traders Index and BTOP FX Traders Index can be found at: http://www.barclayhedge.com/
6- S&P GSCI Metals & Energy Index and S&P GSCI Ag Commodities Index can be found at: https://us.spindices.com/index-family/commodities/sp-gsci
7-The CBOE Eurekahedge Relative Value Volatility Hedge Fund Index can be found at: http://www.eurekahedge.com/Indices/IndexView/Eurekahedge/641/CBOE_Eurekahedge_Relative_Value_Volatility_Hedge_Fund_Index
8-The Eurekahedge-Mizuho Multi-Strategy Index: (See above)
9-The Eurekahedge Long Short Equities Hedge Fund Index: (See above)
10-Blend of BarclayHedge Equity Market Neutral Index: http://www.barclayhedge.com/ with EurekaHedge Equity Mkt Neutral Index (see link above)
Indices and other financial benchmarks shown are provided for illustrative purposes only, are unmanaged, reflect reinvestment of income and dividends and do not reflect the impact of advisory fees. Index data is reported as of date of publication and may be a month-to-date estimate if all underlying components have not yet reported. The index providers may update their reported performance from time to time. Kettera disclaims any obligation to verify these numbers or to update or revise the performance numbers.
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