All four hedge fund strategies published by Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes posted net-of-fees gains in July 2009.

All four hedge fund strategies published by Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes posted net-of-fees gains in July 2009.

Event driven, the strongest performer for the month, gained 1.35 per cent and now sits atop the other strategies for the year with a 7.69 per cent return.

Conversely, equity market neutral posted a small gain of only 0.27 per cent for the month of July and a loss of 3.11 per cent for the year. This was the only strategy to post a loss YTD.

The two remaining strategies, merger arbitrage and equity long/short, showed modest gains of 0.19 per cent and 1.47 per cent respectively in July. YTD returns were 4.72 per cent for merger arbitrage and 2.31 per cent for equity long/short.

Convertible arbitrage was suspended on 2 January 2009 and remained suspended through the month of July.

Distressed securities was suspended on 4 May 2009 and also remained suspended through the month of July.

On a float-adjusted basis, the Dow Jones US Total Stock Market Index, the only broad measure of the domestic equity market, returned 7.81 per cent in July bringing its YTD gain to 12.63 per cent.

The fixed income asset class, as measured by the Dow Jones Corporate Bond Index, gained 4.59 per cent in July for a gain of 13.21 per cent for the year.

The Dow Jones Global Total Stock Market Index, the broadest measure of global equity markets, was up an impressive 8.75 per cent for the month giving the index a positive YTD gain of 20.72 per cent for 2009.