LONDON, Oct 3 – Hedge funds returned 1.3% in September, with managers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East outperforming their North American rivals, according to a JPMorgan client note seen by Reuters on Thursday.
Global equities rose 3.4% (.MIWD00000PUS) in September, opens in a new tab. An index of developed market sovereign bonds rose about 0.7% last month.
JPMorgan, which tracks hedge fund trading, said positioning in US stocks was only “small “Bullish”, indicating expectations of an increase in equities.
Hedge funds performed
Crowding in the largest “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks, which include Apple, Amazon and Nvidia, remained near historic highs, the note said.
In Europe, stock-pickers bet that equities would rise. But multi-strategy funds — which trade multiple strategies — and quantitative funds, which use algorithms, tended to bet that share prices would fall.
In Asia, where stocks rose, hedge funds had more bets on declines than increases, the note said.
Hedge funds
Bridgewater, a $92.1 billion fund, opens a new tab with a 6% monthly gain in its pure alpha fund through Sept. 29. Year-to-date through September 29, Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha, Asia Total Return, All Weather and China Total Return funds have returned 26.2%, 35%, 35% and 35. 28.4%, respectively.
British hedge fund Marshall Weiss posted a September return of 1.32%, up 8.04% for the year so far, a source said. The $79 billion hedge fund’s market-neutral Tops fund returned 0.45% in September and is up 13.66% for the year, the source added.
Systematic stock-trading hedge funds like Marshall Weiss are up more than 13% for 2025 so far, Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients.
Multi-strategy funds were mostly flat during the month, except for $28 billion Balyasny Asset Management, which added 1.3% to its annual return in September from 10% so far this year, another source with knowledge of the matter said.
