04/03/2010 Author: Zaki Abushal

Early-year rankings show signs of turbulence ahead

The rankings have taken on a very strange guise early in the year, a look that could very well run through most of 2010 if market sentiment doesn’t shore-up.

Based on European, and in particular UK, numbers there are very few signs of a turnaround. As such, the short-bias funds have made a strong start to the year, as have distressed strategies; both up more than 2.6% in January trading.

Notably, returns from the more liquid fixed income strategies have also performed well, with fixed income arbitrage up 1.96%. In contrast, many of the trend-following funds have found the going tough in early-year trading, the strongest example of this is the 1% fall experienced by macro funds. And even the systematic traders have struggled to pick up anything in the see-sawing markets. CTA systematic traders are down 2.5% and could be in for a tricky year.