Excalibur believes that their Absolute Return Fund is well positioned for the year ahead after achieving a positive result of 0.53% in January.

Optimal Japan's Absolute Long Fund generated a positive return of 2.58% in January as many funds with a focus on Japan outperformed funds with an Australian bias.

The Ascalon Income Fund lost 1.24% in January against its benchmark (1 year swap +0.75%) return of 0.39% and the ASX200s return of -6.18%.

January was difficult month for all Commodities/CTA managers and Agrgus Capital Management's Dynamic Multi-Strategy Fund was no exception, falling 8.14% in the month.

Prodigal attributes most of the rise in their Equity RV fund in January of 2.45% to the mean reversion of spreads that had widened late last year.

Fortitude Capital's Absolute Return Trust generated a positive return of 0.44% in January with the fund's Mergers and Acquisitions portfolio making the largest contribution, in which the fund's largest position remains in Indophil resources.

The manager attributes the fund's -3.84% result for January to overweight exposure to the Materials sector with large positions in BHP, Rio Tinto and Westpac the main contributors to the fall.

The manager said that ARCM's Ascot Fund fall of 2.45% in January was disappointing, although against a backdrop of a more than 6.2% fall in the Australian equity market the fund achieved a solid result.

Regal's Tasman Market Neutral Fund gained 1.41% in January with losses occuring in the fund's holdings in the Utilities and Basic Minerals sectors, while profits were made from short positions in the Industrials sector.

In what was the worst month for the local sharemarket since November 2008, the Bennelong Securities Long Short Equity Fund managed to gain 0.25%.