Hedge Funds posted a modest return of 0.17 per cent for January, below December’s monthly return of 0.88 per cent, according to the Credit Suisse/Tremont Broad Hedge Fund Index.

All hedge fund strategies except emerging markets, long/short equity, and managed futures posted positive performance for January.

Confirming that December closed on  a strong note, the best performing hedge fund strategy was event driven: distressed securities (+2.02 per cent), while the worst performing strategy was managed futures at minus 3.81 per cent.

Monthly performance dispersion among Credit Suisse/Tremont hedge fund strategy indices in January dropped 168 basis points from December’s reading and ended at 583 basis points.

For January the average performance for the 7,000 actively reporting hedge funds tracked by Lipper was a negative 1.51 per cent - 168 basis points lower than the Credit Suisse/Tremont Broad Hedge Fund Index.

An 84.6-percentage-point monthly performance difference at the end of January divided the top and bottom performers of the hedge funds tracked by Lipper.