19/10/2011 Author: Will Wainewright

Long-term view wins out for Lyford macro

The manager of a peer-beating global macro fund, which has flourished this year to deliver YTD returns of over 10%, has put its success down to pessimistic long-term views on global recovery and nimble responses to quick-moving political events.

Daniel Solomon, hedge fund manager at the Lyford GL Macro Master Fund, a nine-year-old $85m discretionary fund, added that they continued to hold a negative view on growth but prospects were improving.

The macro fund made 11.36% in September, rounding off a five-month purple patch in which it returned 17.9% and bringing YTD returns to 10.11%.

Solomon says it is no surprise that the fund’s best performance came amid market crises and politically driven upheaval in western economies.

“Earlier in the year we had been pessimistic on growth in the long term, but were also nimble enough to respond quickly to political announcements in the short term,” Solomon told HFMWeek.

“I think macro managers who can combine long- and short-term views will fare best as political announcements continue to influence the market,” he said.

Lyford ran the sixth-best-performing macro fund during September, according to BarclayHedge figures. The best was Pegasus Macro, a small fund with assets worth just $2.7m, which returned 27.4%.

Macro funds generally have struggled to make hay during this year’s volatility, with HFR’s macro index down -1.33% YTD.