Commodity Strategies have produced a positive return for both their long only and long short strategy, with a +0.85% (+10.62% YTD) for the Long Only program, and +0.47% (+23.16% YTD) for the long short version.

Of interest was be sharply different attribution of performancebetween the two strategies: The long only strategy achieved 100% of its returns from gold, while the long short strategy was broadly based with the majority of returns coming from the energy sector (with the exception of natural gas). The long short strategy was active in over 20 commodities across the broad sectors of metals, energy, agricultural and grains.

Pengana's Australian Equity Long Short fund returned -10.1% net of fees in November to bring 12 month performance to -32.3%. This compared with the ASX 300 accumulation index which was -6.3% for the month and -40.5% over a 12 month period.

The manager noted that approximately 50% of the negative performance for November was caused by the mar- to-market impact of the fund's exposure to hybrid securities. Other managers have noted that hybrid securities did not benefit from the rally that occurred in the last few days of the month, and thus dragged down performance.

Fortitude Capital, the Australian-based equity market neutral manager, has continued to demonstrate a consistent positive performance for every month of 2008, with a November performance of +0.21%for the onshore fund to take them to +11.88% YTD.

Fortitude's offshore Cayman fund was -0.32%, taking YTD performance to positive 7.4%.

Fortitude, which was awarded the 2008 Australian Hedge Fund Manager of the year award by AIMA, is a multi-strategy market neutral manager.

Blue Fin Capital, which specialises in trading spot foreign exchange markets and commodity futures using a quant trading strategy, has reported -1.03% for November and +9.48% YTD for the commodities strategy, and -3.80% and +8.48% YTD for the FX strategy.

Wallace Absolute Return Limited, an ASX Listed Investment Company (LIC) recorded a negative return of -2.47% for October, bringing 12 month performance to -18%.

Meanwhile the Wallace Australia Opportunities Fund, a Cayman based unlisted fund using broadly the same Equity Market Neutral strategy, returned a positive 8.15% and 36% over the past 12 months.

The Asia-Pacific Asset Management Asia fund returned 18.21% in October to take year-to-date performance to +11.69%.

The manager noted in their monthly report that they made gains on the currency through an active hedge strategy although the underlying managers in the fund had also performed well in difficult conditions during October.

Meanwhile the Asia-Pacific Asset Management Australian Fund returned -0.77% for the month and -5.03% year-to-date.

Both funds are open to retail investors in Australia.

Kenny Arnott's Arnott Opportunities Fund, an Equity Long Short fund investing primarily in Pan Asia, returned 0.34% in October, bringing YTD performance to +4.35%.

Arnott's October performance report indicated a move towards risk free arbitrage deals during the month as a method of navigating successfully through current markets. They also noted that there was a reduction in competitive activity from both other funds, and also from investment bank's proprietary desks, which have been winding leverage back from up to 50 times to a more manageable 10 to 20 times.

The Arnott Opportunity Fund has US$780m in funds under management and was established in November 2005.

AMP Capital's Total Return Fund, a leveraged, Multi Strategy, Global Fund of Funds with $979 million in funds under management, returned -13.21% in October, bringing 2008 YTD performance to -18.61%.

The Manager reported that the majority of underlying strategies in the fund experienced losses in October due in part to continued liquidation occurring in hedge funds globally. In particular managers in the leveraged loan market, distressed, special situations and macro strategies all contributed to the losses. On the positive side were commodity strategies and some sector specialist funds.

AMP reported they were reducing exposures to various strategies to lower risk, whilst also noting that they have adjusted their Australian dollar hedge position to act as a buffer against negative manager performance.

The BlackRock Asset Allocation Alpha Fund returned 8.17% to investors in October, continuing what has been a successful year to date, returning over 30%.

The fund which was formerly known as the Merrill Lynch Asset Allocation Alpha Fund, noted positive influences on performance included bonds/cash, currencies and equities, reflecting the long US large cap versus US small cap, and long US growth versus US value.

Looking forward, the manager noted that there is now a risk that the global economy faces deflation in the next 12 to 24 months on the heels of a severe global recession. They also noted that equity markets usually reached their lows 3 to 6 months before the end of the recession, and with their negative view in that regard, feel that it is likely to be still too early to buy.

Blue Fin Capital, an Australian quantitative investment manager specialising in trading spot foreign exchange and commodity futures markets, has reported a positive return of +1.12% for October, bringing year-to-date returns to 10.62%.

Performance attribution for October was positive 0.05%for soft commodities, +1.62% for metals and +0.24% for energy. Grains lost -0.79%.

Blue Fin Capital's managed commodities account was established in April 2007.