The 3 big trends behind hedge funds’ 'historic' rebound from heavy Iran war losses

Hedge funds are staging a dramatic rebound after suffering hefty losses during March's Middle East-fueled market mayhem, with equity-focused strategies landing their biggest monthly gain for investors in a quarter-century last month. Overall, the industry advanced about 3% on average in April, according to new data published by global industry tracker Hedge Fund Research. "We saw in April a historic performance recovery for hedge funds from a historic decline in the prior month of March," said HFR president Kenneth Heinz. Among the industry's big winners were equity hedge funds — a cornerstone strategy in which managers invest both long and short on listed companies. Short selling involves investors betting against a particular stock or security, with the aim of profiting from a decline in its value. Here, stockpickers notched a standout 5.43% monthly return in April, a sharp rebound from March's 4.33% slide. This was also their strongest monthly showing since February 2000, which Heinz described as "an amazing performance." BlackRock back hedge funds Hedge funds suffered steep losses in March, with their portfolio positions caught out by the Middle East conflict and resulting oil price spike. HFR's all-strategy index lost almost 3% for the month, marking its biggest dip since June 2022. .SPX line 2026-03-01 Stocks have staged a rebound after losses in March. …