Kettera Strategies Heat Map - April 2020
In global macro, the strategies we follow exhibited some of the widest dispersion between discretionary and quant macro programs we’ve seen in a while. Although both types of programs generally benefitted from long fixed income and long equity directional positions, their entry points and exposures differed. Currencies were a challenging sector for both types of programs. Many of the quant macro programs we track also suffered at the hands of relative value and volatility-trading positions.
Discretionary commodities managers were a mixed bag. Energy managers, particularly crude oil traders, fell prey to the odd storage constriction in oil that forced prices negative for the first time in history. Agricultural programs once again appeared to outdo their metals/energy trading peers.
Short-term programs were, for the most part, positive. Most of the diversified ST programs we track found profits in gold and crude oil, as models benefitted from elevated levels of volatility in those markets. Short-term “trend” models appeared to be profitable in all sectors except FX, not unlike their longer-term systematic cousins (see below).
Systematic trend strategies, generally speaking, were positive on average – though certainly not as dramatic as in recent months. Nearly all suffered setbacks in FX, but were flat to profitable in nearly all other sectors. The rebound in equities indices appeared to be caught by medium-term models, while longer-term programs were challenged in equities as most retained short exposures from the first-quarter selloff.
It was little surprise to see equities hedge fund strategies rebound in April. All equities style buckets were track were positive on the month. Event driven strategies, in particular, charged back to life after most programs in this category suffered the worst months of since inception in March.
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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
2-The Societe Generale Trend Index and SG CTA Index
3-The Societe General Short-term Traders Index: (same link as above)
4-The Eurekahedge AI Hedge Fund Index
5-The BarclayHedge Currency Traders Index and BTOP FX Traders Index
6- S&P GSCI Metals & Energy Index and S&P GSCI Ag Commodities Index
7-The 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 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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