Indices › Performance › 2021
Hedge fund research
How did hedge funds perform in 2021?
The PivotalPath Composite Hedge Fund Index returned 7.8% in 2021. Equity Quant leads at 14.7%; Volatility Trading is weakest at 0.2%.
7.8%
Composite
14.7%
Equity Quant
0.2%
Volatility Trading
28.7%
S&P 500
2021 calendar-year figures, as of August 2026.
2021 returns by strategy
| Index | 2021 | 3y ann. | 5y ann. | Volatility | Correlation to S&P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equity Quant | 14.7% | 10.6% | 9.4% | 4.5% | 0.42 |
| Credit | 10.8% | 8.4% | 6.5% | 4.9% | 0.52 |
| Event Driven | 10.5% | 11.4% | 6.6% | 6.9% | 0.66 |
| Equity Diversified | 9.3% | 13.6% | 7.9% | 7.0% | 0.81 |
| Multi-Strategy | 9.2% | 10.3% | 7.5% | 4.2% | 0.48 |
| Managed Futures | 8.8% | 3.2% | 4.7% | 9.3% | -0.16 |
| Composite | 7.8% | 11.0% | 7.2% | 4.8% | 0.62 |
| Global Macro | 4.3% | 7.6% | 7.0% | 5.9% | 0.04 |
| Equity Sector | 0.7% | 20.0% | 9.0% | 8.4% | 0.72 |
| Volatility Trading | 0.2% | 3.7% | 4.4% | 5.0% | -0.20 |
| S&P 500 Total Return | 28.7% | — | — | — | — |
What happened
The S&P 500 total return was 28.7% over the same period, so the Composite finished behind the market. The spread between the strongest and weakest strategy was 14.5% — 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 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.