Nordic hedge funds continued their strong run since May, closing out the summer on a positive note with an average gain of 0.5 percent in August. A cumulative 5.0 percent advance over the past four months lifted the industry’s year-to-date performance to 4.9 percent through the end of August.
Most strategy groups within the Nordic Hedge Index ended the month in positive territory, with CTAs and long-only equity funds posting losses on aggregate. Multi-manager funds led the way in August, advancing 0.9 percent on average, which brought their 2025 performance to 1.9 percent. Diversified strategies – spanning multi-asset, multi-strategy, and niche approaches – also performed well, rising 0.8 percent to reach a 4.1 percent gain year-to-date.
Fixed-income and equity long/short managers, the two strongest-performing strategy groups so far this year, each advanced 0.5 percent in August. Fixed-income managers are up 7.3 percent for the first eight months, while equity long/short managers follow closely at 7.1 percent. By contrast, long-only equity managers, tracked separately from the Nordic Hedge Index, slipped 0.5 percent in August, trimming their year-to-date advance to 8.3 percent. Systematic trend-following CTAs, macro, and managed futures funds edged down 0.7 percent in August, extending their year-to-date decline to 6.2 percent.
Performance dispersion among constituents of the Nordic Hedge Index stood at 6.3 percent in August. The top 20 percent of performers gained 3.6 percent on average, while the bottom 20 percent lost 2.7 percent. Roughly 72 percent of reporting funds finished August in positive territory, and about 77 percent are up for the year.
Best Performing Nordic Hedge Funds in August and Year-to-Date
Among individual funds, opportunistic hedge fund Pensum Global Opportunities, managed by Peter Andersland, topped the list with an 8.7 percent gain in August, bringing its year-to-date performance to 12.7 percent. Gains were driven by exposure to gold, silver, and uranium mining. Shipping-focused Cleaves Shipping Fund followed closely with an 8.0 percent rise, extending its advance to 14.2 percent year-to-date.
Avanto Right Tail (ART), a strategy designed to capture extreme upside events through concentrated positions, notched its fourth consecutive strong month with a 6.8 percent advance in August. Healthcare specialist Rhenman Healthcare Equity L/S also rebounded strongly, climbing 6.3 percent and snapping a series of monthly losses. Meanwhile, Proxy Renewable Long/Short Energy gained 4.9 percent in August, pushing into positive territory for the year after four consecutive months of strong returns.
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).
