Final performance for the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index has been confirmed down 2.76 per cent in May, its largest drop since November 2008.

Nine out of ten sectors posted negative performance for the month.

Although the industry was negatively impacted by the market sell-offs, hedge funds outperformed equity market indices such as the S&P 500 and MSCI World which fell 7.99 per cent and 9.77 per cent respectively in May.

Dedicated short bias was the only sector to generate positive performance, gaining 5.84 per cent for the month as managers benefited from negative equity market performance and overall higher volatility.

Global macro and fixed income arbitrage managers were largely able to limit their losses finishing the month down 0.63 per cent and 0.79 per cent respectively.     

The worst performing strategy was emerging markets, which fell by 4.28 per cent.