After delivering a solid 8.0 percent return in 2025, Nordic hedge funds carried their momentum into 2026. The Nordic Hedge Index rose 1.0 percent on average in January, but the headline gain concealed significant underlying dispersion. Performance dispersion was pronounced, particularly among long/short equity managers, where returns spanned from minus 14 percent to plus 15 percent.
All five strategy sub-groups in the index finished January in positive territory, though equity long/short managers barely broke even. Systematic trend-following CTAs, macro, and managed futures strategies led performance, benefiting primarily from gains in precious metals despite a sharp reversal in broader markets toward month-end. The small cohort of multi-manager funds also delivered a solid month, rising 1.9 percent on average. Diversified strategies, spanning multi-asset, multi-strategy, and niche approaches, gained 1.4 percent.
Fixed-income hedge funds advanced 0.9 percent, extending a three-year stretch of strong and consistent performance for the segment. By contrast, equity long/short managers, the best-performing group in 2025, edged up just 0.1 percent amid significant dispersion in returns among managers. Long-only equity managers, tracked separately from the index, declined 1.8 percent in January following a strong aggregate gain of 13.8 percent last year.
Dispersion remained a defining feature of the month. The top 20 percent of funds gained 5.1 percent on average, while the bottom 20 percent declined 3.0 percent. Approximately 70 percent of reporting funds generated positive returns.
Best Performing Nordic Hedge Funds in January
After a late-year drawdown that knocked it off 2025’s top-performers list, Impega managed by Petter Kvamme Jensen topped the January performance table with a 15.8 percent return. Atlas Global Macro and Coda Global Opportunities, last year’s two best-performing Nordic hedge funds, extended their strong momentum into the new year, returning 12.2 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively.
Proxy Renewable Long/Short Energy also delivered a solid result, supported by strong performance across renewable energy and energy technology sectors. The fund generated additional alpha on top of sector tailwinds, ending the month up 9.3 percent. Lynx Asset Management’s trend-following program, Lynx, stood out as well, with its SEK share class gaining 7.4 percent. Another notable performer was Xcent Multi-Strategy, which advanced 5.7 percent during the month.
Top Performing Long-Only Equity Funds
In September of 2023, HedgeNordic introduced a new sub-strategy category to the Nordic Hedge Index: Equity Long-Only (ELO). This category is home to funds that would fall short of qualifying as a hedge fund due to their long-only trading approach but exhibit habitual characteristics of a hedge fund strategy (e.g., leverage and derivatives usage, portfolio concentration, fee structure, a spin-off of a long/short strategy, and absolute return objectives, among others).
