Hedge fund investors back equity long-short for 2016: survey

LONDON (Reuters) - Equity funds that can profit from both rising and falling markets and rivals betting on macroeconomic trends are expected to outperform in 2016, a Deutsche Bank survey of investors managing $2.1 trillion in assets showed. When asked to name their three top strategy picks for the year, 40 percent of 504 global hedge fund investors surveyed backed the so-called fundamental equity long-short strategy to lead the performance charts. In second place, with votes from 35 percent of investors, was the discretionary macro strategy, which involves bets on markets including rates, currencies and commodities, the survey released on Tuesday showed. On the flip-side, 27 percent of investors surveyed expected distressed credit to be among their three worst-performing strategies come year-end, followed by activist investing, which 25 percent felt would underperform the most. On a regional basis, 57 percent of investors felt western Europe would be in their three best-performing regions, followed by the United States/Canada, which received the backing of 55 percent of investors, and Japan with 31 percent. Latin America, with 35 percent of investors, and Russia, with 30 percent were expected to perform worst during the year. (Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Mark Potter)