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.

Antipodean Capital, an Australian Quantitative Fundamental manager of FX, CTA and Volatility, has reported a positive return of 5.4% for its Currency strategy, -0.87% for the CTA, and -1.70% for the Global Volatility Arbitrage.

2008 YTD results are +2.19%, -5.99% and +9.49% respectively.

Antipodean's Craig Ferguson noted that leverage had been reduced across all three strategies to reduce risk, given the extreme volatility in all markets. In the A$ Currency Strategy profits were made no short positions on the way down as well as long positions as the dollar recovered.

Antipodean Capital has a track record since February 2006, and an annualised return in the Currency strategy of 10.98%. The CTA strategy was established in August 2006 and has returned an annualized 21.78%, while the Volatility Arbitrage Strategy was established in December 2007 and has returned 22.60% annualised.

Fortitude Capital's Equity Market Neutral funds continued their positive performance in October, returning +3.12% for the onshore fund, and + 2.35% for the Cayman fund, bringing YTD 2008 performance to 11.64% and 7.75% respectively.

Given the market's (ASX200) performance of -12% for October and a continuing restriction on short selling, Fortitude's performance is undoubtedly positive. The fact that Fortitude's onshore fund has yet to record a negative month this year is almost unique, even amongst absolute return funds.

Fortitude's onshore fund has close to a 4 year track record, and has achieved positive returns in 41 out of 44 months.

Wallace Australia Opportunities Fund, a Cayman based Equity Market Neutral Hedge Fund with a 3 year track record, has overcome the worst equity market performance since October '87 and restrictions on short selling to return investors 8.15% for October, (preliminary results) bringing YTD 2008 results to +39.9%.

All profits were made in the long/short portfolio which returned +8.87%, whilst the Event Driven portfolio recorded a small loss of -0.72%.

The fund was established in October 2005 and has returned 21.62% annualised over its three year track record. Wallace also manages an Australian Listed Investment Company (LIC).

Apeiron's Global Macro Fund has continued the recent positive performance, returning +5.21% after fees in October, as a follow up from September's performance of +7.22%. On a 2008 YTD basis the fund has returned an impressive 19.81%, in line with their annualised return since inception in February 2006 of +19.47%.

Apeiron's performance report indicated that the result was achieved in spite of remaining heavily weighted towards cash, with remaining exposure predominantly on the short side, and as a macro manager trading futures and FX markets, not inhibited by the equity short selling bans.

Bennelong's Long/Short Equity Fund has produced a positive result of +3.78% in October, with the manager lamenting the lost opportunities associated with the ongoing short selling ban.

In the latest monthly comment, the Manager's view is that there is likely to be further deleveraging as domestic corporate and household sectors have not yet sufficiently reduced leverage from the previously grossly inflated levels, and that this will possibly lead to further disorderly (i.e. forced) debt reduction.

Bennelong has been one of the best performing Equity Managers in the Australian market this year with performance YTD of 7.92%.

Pengana's Australian Equities Long Short fund lost 13.5% net after all fees in October, bringing their 6 month performance to -21%, vs the ASX300 Accumulation Index which fell 12.9% in October, and has fallen 26.9% over the past 6 months.

Pengana manages a range of funds, which struggled in October's unprecedented volatility.  The Pengana Global Resources Fund fell over 12%, following  a fall of -20% in September.

Pengana's Global Volatility Fund, which was launched with much fanfare in November 2007 and initially performed well in the first half of 2008, appears to have ceased reporting returns.

Platinum Asset Management, Australia's largest Absolute Return fund manager with over $14b in total assets under management, provided investors a range of returns for October, with the flagship Platinum International Fund, a global equity long/short fund with over $7 billion in FUM recording +1.30% for the month.

On a monthly basis, Platinum's Japan Fund was their best performer, returning 5.00%, whilst their European Equity L/S fund was the worst performer with a negative 12.30%.