Alternatives and Rambo Inflation

Inflation is everywhere – from the Marginal Revolution blog:

Number of people killed per minute in the Rambo series.

Rambo: First Blood (1982): 0.01
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985): 0.72
Rambo III (1988): 1.30
Rambo IV (2008): 2.59

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In an earlier post, I examined how some of the listed alternatives in the US performed on a few down days in 2007.

With the US equity markets down around -10% YTD as of this weekend, how are the various alternative funds holding up? ( I will be taking a look at the foreign listed hedge funds in a follow up post.)

The FOFs are down around -5%. (FOF is a closed end fund and has received a 5% bump from the discount it ended 2007.)

The L/S equity are a mixed bag, but are down around -5% with even the bearish Hussman down.

The market neutral funds are a pleasant surprise, actually turning in positive performance over the time period. The arb and convertible funds are doing OK as well.

The listed private equity continuities to behave like small cap stocks down around -11%.

Managed futures are doing well, up slightly on the year.

And obviously, the bear funds are doing great.

Below is a summary chart for YTD performance (click on the chart to ZOOM in):