The hedge fund industry took in USD250 million (0.01% of assets) in October, recovering from outflows of USD6.8 billion (0.2% of assets) in September, according to BarclayHedge and TrimTabs.

“Hedge fund inflows have slowed dramatically in the second half of this year,” says Sol Waksman (pictured), president and founder of BarclayHedge. “Inflows since July have averaged USD2.9 billion monthly, down from USD13.8 billion monthly in the first half of 2014.”

Industry assets stood at USD2.37 trillion in October, down slightly from September’s six-year high of USD2.38 trillion, according to estimates based on data from 3,500 funds. Assets climbed 15.8% in the past 12 months and are just 2.9% below the all-time high of USD2.44 trillion in June 2008.

The monthly TrimTabs/BarclayHedge Hedge Fund Flow Report noted that the hedge fund industry lost 0.3% in October, improving on September’s loss of 1.3% but underperforming the S&P 500, which gained 2.4%.
“Equity Long Bias funds performed best in October, gaining 0.4%, while Emerging Markets funds had the strongest inflows at USD2.6 billion,” says Waksman.

The monthly TrimTabs/BarclayHedge Survey of Hedge Fund Managers finds that hedge fund managers’ optimism on US stocks hit the highest level this year in November, while bearish sentiment fell to a seven-month low. Bearish sentiment on the US Dollar Index dropped to the lowest level since January 2011. Sentiment on 10-year US Treasuries remained mostly neutral.