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Indices › Performance › 2026

Hedge fund research

How have hedge funds performed in 2026?

The PivotalPath Composite Hedge Fund Index returned 7.1% year to date through August 2026. Equity Sector leads at 13.7%; Volatility Trading is weakest at 3.6%.

7.1%
Composite
13.7%
Equity Sector
3.6%
Volatility Trading
13.1%
S&P 500

Year-to-date figures are cumulative through August 2026 and update monthly.

2026 year-to-date returns by strategy

Year-to-date returns are cumulative through August 2026, not annualised, and are therefore not comparable figure-for-figure with the annualised columns beside them.
Index2026 YTD3y ann.5y ann.VolatilityCorrelation to S&P
Equity Sector13.7%20.0%9.0%8.4%0.72
Managed Futures9.7%3.2%4.7%9.3%-0.16
Equity Diversified8.0%13.6%7.8%7.0%0.81
Composite7.1%11.0%7.2%4.8%0.62
Event Driven6.9%11.4%6.6%6.9%0.66
Multi-Strategy6.0%10.3%7.5%4.2%0.48
Global Macro5.9%7.6%7.0%5.9%0.04
Equity Quant4.2%10.7%9.5%4.5%0.42
Credit3.7%8.4%6.5%4.9%0.52
Volatility Trading3.6%3.7%4.4%5.0%-0.20
S&P 500 Total Return13.1%————

What is driving it

The S&P 500 total return was 13.1% over the same period, so the Composite finished behind the market. The spread between the strongest and weakest strategy was 10.1% — which is the figure an allocator selecting between them is exposed to.

A single calendar year is a short window and says little about a strategy’s long-run behaviour. The since-inception figures are on each index page.

Returns by year, every year

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.