Stockholm (HedgeNordic) Denmark’s Nordic Power Trading and Sweden’s Shepherd Energy Portfolio had returns of 15% and 14% for 2016 respectively, over five times the 2.5% average gain in the global hedge fund industry according to Hedge Fund Research Inc., Bloomberg reported.

The Nordic electricity investment companies benefited from a 71% spike in Nordic power prices between September and November due to forecasts for a cold winter and low hydropower reservoirs. Rates subsequently tumbled due to wet and windy weather, which “spurred the first annual increase in trading volume in eight years.”

“We focus a lot on the weather and the important hydrological balance to find the right combination of risk and reward,” says Lina Petrell, COO of Shepherd Energy AB. “With only a small adjustment in one of our strategies after the summer we managed to be on the right side of price movements.” Shepherd Energy’s Power Series Fund also contributed to Shepherd’s $15 million in AUM with gains of 4%.

 Picture: (c) Piotr-Zajda—shutterstock.com