Hedge funds, along with the underlying equities market had a terrible end to 2018 although this year the latter has recovered which should bold well for the former asset class.

However, although Fundeye recently reported that hedge funds AUM had increased despite continued outflows due to positive market performance, latest data shows that the industry dipped into the red in August, losing 0.31 percent. According to eVestment, this was the second negative month the asset class had suffered this year, the first being May.

On a more positive note, when looking at year-to-date data, across the board hedge funds are up 9.97 percent. Given the variety of different strategies within the hedge fund realm, almost all are in positive territory year-to-date, again a welcome change from last year.

Managed Futures strategies have been the standout performer in the asset class, they returned 4.4 percent in August, bringing year-to-date returns to 12.74 percent.

India and China-focused hedge funds struggled, with the latter down 5.95 percent last month bring year-to-date losses to 16.23 percent. China, another high growth market slipped into the red last month by 0.73 percent however conversely has been one of the best regional performers this year, returning 15.14 percent.

Long/Short Equity funds, in some ways the essence of what a hedge fund is, lost 1.56 percent last month. However, as with most strategies, on a year-to-date basis is up 8.52 percent.

It seems that while there have certainly been problems with the asset class, ranging from controversy over the ‘2 and 20’ fee model to high profile institutional investors taking large swathes of their money out of these funds, if their underlying market, typically equities, is performing well, than these funds can still deliver.