Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Following several years of not-so-great performance, the original Lynx Fund launched in May 2000 – one of the oldest members of the Nordic Hedge Index – is enjoying its best-ever start to a year. The Swedish-domiciled systematic fund gained 16.3 percent year-to-date through April 26.
The Lynx Fund (Sweden) and the offshore-based Lynx (Bermuda), one of the world’s largest trend-following CTAs, are powered by the Lynx Programme, which uses both trend-following models and diversifying models to catch trends across markets and reduce drawdowns in non-trending environments. The fund’s investment universe consists of futures of stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities. With the programme’s models further divided into three separate categories based on investment horizon (short-term, medium-term, and long-term models), the Lynx Fund (Sweden) represents a more diversified vehicle than many other trend-following managed futures funds.
The Lynx Fund (Sweden) suffered four consecutive years of single-digit losses following a nearly 28 percent gain in 2014. The fund has greatly outpaced its peers in the NHX CTA sub-index and the SG CTA Index this year. “We’ve seen good opportunities for trend following strategies so far this year, particularly in equities and bonds,” says Martin Källström (pictured), Senior Managing Director and Partner at Lynx Asset Management. “Our diversifying segment has also done very well, including strategies based on machine learning as well as strategies with a macro-based approach,” Källström adds.
The SG CTA Index, which tracks the performance of the largest 20 CTAs by assets under management, gained 4.6 percent year-to-date through April 25. The Lynx Fund (Sweden) is the best performing member of the NHX CTA this year after gaining nine percent in the first quarter and 16.3 percent year-to-date through April 26. The fund earned an annualized return of 9.7 percent since launching in 2000. The Lynx Programme’s total assets under management have been relatively stable, decreasing from $5.4 billion in early 2016 to $5.1 billion.
