New York (HedgeCo.net) – The S&P 500 in 2016 will go down on paper as one of the worst starts to any year in history. While January and February month end totals just released are nothing to write home about, many investors have been doing much better thanks to alternative funds.

A recent article in InvestmentNews highlighted one investment manager that has used liquid alternative funds to hedge his overall portfolio and as a result his portfolios were positive amidst the market losses. Bradley Alford, CIO of Alpha Capital Management, reported that “We’ve been using managed futures funds as an indirect hedge, because they’re structured for this kind of environment.” As a result of these indirect hedges, both the Alpha Opportunistic Alternatives Fund (APOCX) and the Alpha Defensive Alternatives Fund (ACDEX) were in positive territory to start the year.

Yet another manager, Dick Pfister CEO of AlphaCore Capital, includes alternative strategies as part of his portfolio that includes stocks and bonds. His portfolio was down a mere 0.88% compared to the much bigger losses in the overall stock market. Mr. Pfister added that, “When the fundamentals are thrown out the window you want divergent strategies that will do well when a lot of other more traditional alternative strategies won’t do well.”