Global Macro For Best Returns In 2012

Hedge fund managers predict global macro strategies will deliver the best returns in 2012 and they continue to see Brazil, China and India as the most rewarding regions for investing, according to a GAIM survey of 185 members of the hedge fund industry.

Asked to identify reasons that a global recovery might be derailed next year, respondents cited a range of worries. The eurozone crisis, global monetary policy uncertainty and the US deficit top the list. 

“The results reflect the array of macro-headwinds driving markets right now,” commented Amanda Rodrigues-Cheung, GAIM Event Director. Top economists, hedge funds and policy makers will be addressing all these issues at the GAIM GMA event this autumn in New York City.

More hedge fund managers think global macro will outshine 17 other competing strategies in 2012, the survey found. Of the 55 hedge fund managers who responded to the 2011 GAIM GMA Hedge Fund Sentiment Survey, 22% picked global macro, followed by event-driven (11%) and commodities-based strategies and U.S. long/short equity (9%). Global macro was also chosen most often by investors in hedge funds as most likely to outshine other approaches (23%).

The hedge fund managers in the GAIM survey currently manage assets ranging between less than $100 million to more than $5bn. GAIM says it conducted the survey in mid-August as financial markets fluctuated in response to growing investor fears of a second recession and mounting economic woes in Europe.