The stock market was back on the rise in November with a comfortable gain of six per cent in a context of decreasing implied volatility (24.51 per cent), which is now at its lowest level since September 2008.

Since its low point in February 2009, the S&P 500 index has now recovered half its losses from its high of September 2007.

According to the research by Edhec Risk, regular bonds registered an eighth month of steady returns in November (0.73 per cent) and, after last month’s stumble, convertible bonds managed a noticeable gain (2.78 per cent).

The credit spread widened (0.58 per cent) for the eighth consecutive month. The commodities market scored well (3.17 per cent) and achieved a full quarter of sustained profitability while the struggling dollar fell off again, down 2.05 per cent to its level of August 2008.

Despite the profits on the stock markets, the convertible arbitrage strategy took advantage of the increasing credit spread and profitable convertible bonds. With another month of gains (0.86 per cent), the strategy achieved a full year of constant profitability. Not much affected by the crisis, the CTA global strategy continued its uneven rise with a substantial gain of 3.54 per cent.

The equity market neutral strategy recovered last month’s limited loss of 0.05 per cent with a slightly positive return of 0.07 per cent and maintained its level of October 2008.

In the trail of the stock market, the event driven (1.75 per cent) and long/short (1.46 per cent) strategies both managed positive returns, although only about one quarter of the S&P 500 gains.

In this favourable context, the funds of funds strategy registered a limited gain of 0.82 per cent. Over the year, funds of funds recovered about 40 per cent of the losses from their highest level of October 2007.