Lee Hennessee, Managing Principal of Hennessee Group
“Hedge funds are underperforming for the year as the investment environment remains challenging for alpha generation. While managers generated gains in long portfolios as equity markets continued to rally, shorting continues to work against hedge fund managers, detracting from performance.”

Charles Gradante, Co-Founder of Hennessee Group
“Over the past couple months, the markets have brushed off negative news, including conflict in the Middle East, rising oil prices, S&P downgrading U.S. debt, and lower than expected GDP. Markets have continued to rally with the Russell 2000 hitting an all time high and the NASDAQ reaching a 10 year high. Some managers feel that the government’s monetary policy and stimulus is distorting asset prices and encouraging risk taking. The markets may be underestimating the amount of risk in asset prices, credit spreads and other factors.”

“We are seeing more managers favor large capitalization, multinational companies. Large cap, multinational companies have underperformed significantly in recent years and are currently selling at attractive valuations relative to small and mid cap stocks. In addition, many of these companies have large exposure to rapidly growing emerging economies, which will provide good growth opportunities.”

“Gold, silver and oil were strong performers in April. While silver and gold experienced a correction over the last few days, most managers believe silver and gold will continue to increase until there is evidence of a rise in interest rates, which would strengthen the dollar.”