Sign in Request a demo

Indices › Performance

Hedge fund research

How have hedge funds performed over the last 10 years?

The PivotalPath Composite Hedge Fund Index returned 7.2% annualised over the ten years to August 2026, and 9.3% annualised since January 2000 — with annualised volatility of 4.8% and a maximum drawdown of -12.8%.

7.2%
10-year annualised
7.2%
5-year annualised
9.3%
Since January 2000
7.1%
Year to date

Composite figures as of August 2026.

Returns by strategy and period

As of August 2026. Returns over periods longer than one year are annualised. An index with a shorter history than the column shows an em dash rather than a figure.
Index10y ann.5y ann.3y ann.Since 2000VolatilityMax DD
Equity Sector10.8%9.0%20.0%13.0%8.4%-20.6%
Equity Diversified8.2%7.8%13.6%9.7%7.0%-18.5%
Event Driven7.8%6.6%11.4%9.3%6.9%-21.2%
Multi-Strategy7.5%7.5%10.3%9.1%4.2%-15.0%
Composite7.2%7.2%11.0%9.3%4.8%-12.8%
Credit6.4%6.5%8.4%8.9%4.9%-17.5%
Equity Quant5.9%9.5%10.7%6.2%4.5%-19.2%
Global Macro5.0%7.0%7.6%7.9%5.9%-9.4%
Volatility Trading3.7%4.4%3.7%8.4%5.0%-4.6%
Managed Futures3.4%4.7%3.2%7.3%9.3%-15.4%

Year to date

Year-to-date returns are cumulative through August 2026 and are NOT annualised, so they are not comparable figure-for-figure with the table above.
IndexYear to date1 yearSharpe
Equity Sector13.7%29.3%1.28
Managed Futures9.7%17.7%0.59
Equity Diversified8.0%12.7%1.09
Composite7.1%12.4%1.48
Event Driven6.9%11.0%1.05
Multi-Strategy6.0%11.0%1.66
Global Macro5.9%10.7%0.98
Equity Quant4.2%7.2%0.96
Credit3.7%5.8%1.38
Volatility Trading3.6%4.9%1.28

What stands out

Over ten years Equity Sector leads at 10.8% annualised and Managed Futures trails at 3.4%. The dispersion between strategies is the point: a single hedge fund number averages away the thing an allocator is selecting for.

Returns over periods longer than one year are annualised; one-year and year-to-date figures are cumulative. The two are not comparable.

Related questions

Returns are monthly, net of all fees, in USD. The complete return history is published free under a Creative Commons Attribution licence at github.com/pivotalpath/publicdata, and the full construction methodology — including the treatment of selection, survivorship and backfill bias — is in the index methodology. Past performance does not predict future returns.