After a dismal 2018 for the asset class, hedge funds recorded their fourth consecutive month of positive returns in April.

According to figures from eVestment, a provider of hedge fund information, on average hedge funds gained 1.26 percent in April, continuing the positive start to 2019.

Year-to-date (YTD) average gains in hedge funds lag a global balanced benchmark but still represent the best start for the hedge fund industry since 2006, when aggregate gains were 7.72 percent.

Among some of the main hedge fund strategies, event driven –activist strategies were big winners both in April and YTD. Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square fund falls into this category and is one of the big winners, recording gains of 38.2 percent YTD.

For Ackman’s fund and the event driven activist sector, this is a big turnaround from last year when on average these funds were deep in the red at -10.3 percent.

Managed futures funds again produced big gains in April, returning an average of 2.03 percent, bringing Q1 2019 returns to 4.66%. This space still has a way to go to offset 2018 average losses of -6.06 percent. The 10 largest funds in the space returned an average of 3.02 percent in April and are +6.77 percent YTD.

Russia-focused funds gained the most of any emerging markets segment in April, returning an average of 2.61 percent, bringing YTD returns to 11.10 percent. While China-focused funds may have underwhelmed in April with just 0.74 percent gains, they continue to be the industry’s best performing segment overall in 2019 with average YTD gains of 18.55 percent.