Hedge funds finished their best year of the decade with positive performance in December. Top performing sectors included Event Driven, Long/Short Equity, Emerging Markets and Convertible Arbitrage.

Event Driven managers capitalized on their credit books as high yield and leveraged loan markets spreads tightened. Managers also seized opportunities in select idiosyncratic distressed situations.

Long/Short Equity and Emerging Markets experienced positive performance in the final month of the year with performance largely propelled by rallies in Japanese and certain European equity markets. Following early gains, many managers took risk off the books as markets slowed down in the second half of the month.

A correction in gold and other precious metals resulted in losses in the Global Macro and Managed Futures sectors. Many macro managers were also adversely affected by the reversal in the U.S. Dollar. Quantitative funds experienced some of the steepest losses due to high levels of risk while discretionary managers had better performance as many pared back risk towards the end of the year.

Convertible Arbitrage experienced its twelfth consecutive month of gains to end the year as best performer among hedge fund strategies as the U.S. convertible bond market had a record return of 49% in 2009[1]. New issuance was light aside from a $3.5 billion issue from Citibank.

Early estimates indicate the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index (“Broad Index”) will finish up +0.39% in December 2009 (based on 62% of assets reporting).