Agora's Absolute Return Fund was down -3.19% in November, compared to the S&P/ASX 200's return of -6.20% in the same period. This result brings the fund's YTD performance to -14.05%.

Agora is expecting economic indicators to remain negative into 2009, and is thus continuing to be conservative in its approach, i.e. they will continue to operate with a low level of exposure to the equity market. Agora's leveraged Absolute Return Fund returned -4.02% in November, and is down -12.98% YTD.

Pengana’s Global Small Companies Solution fund lost 1.7% in November and has fallen 34.2% over the last three months. The fund benchmark is an equally weighted combination of returns available from each of the three geographic regions that it invests in: North America, Europe and Asia. The fund outperformed this measure by 6% in November but has underperformed by 1.2% over the three months.

The manager believes that small companies are now attractively priced with good potential in the Asian region. Research conducted by Pengana shows that values have fallen sharply while earnings remain relatively healthy so the manager will be looking to add another Asian small cap specialist to its team over coming months.

Antipodean Capital's Volatility Arbitrage Strategy returned +3.82% for November, bringing their YTD performance to +13.68% and their annualised return since inception (December 2007) to +24.54%.

This result was attributed to positive returns in the fund's equity and FX derivatives strategies. Antipodean's CTA Strategy also posted a positive result for November (+1.21%), while their $A Currency Strategy returned a small loss of -0.11%.

SHC's Ailsa Fund reported a gain of +2.53% in November, bringing its YTD return to -5.13%.

The 3 month return on the Ailsa Fund was -2.1%, compared to the S&P/ASX200, which returned -26.7% over the same period. SHC retains a positive view on global equity markets in 2009, although the real economy may still have some way to fall.

Attunga Capital's managed futures and multi-strategy funds reported both positive and negative returns for November.

Attunga's managed futures funds, the Enviro Opportunities Fund (EOF) and the Power & Enviro (Offshore) Fund (PEOF), reported returns of -1.04% and -1.10% respectively for November, while their multi-strategy Agricultural Trading Fund (ATF) returned +1.29%. Positive performance in the ATF was attributed to calendar spreads in soybean oil, corn and soybeans, which offset losses on market spreads in wheat markets. The EOF and PEOF, which are both mainly invested in Australian electricity assets, are looking ahead to the release of the Australian Government's emission trading scheme proposal in mid December, which will impact their power and emission markets.

Tactical Global Management (TGA)'s GTAA AUD Fund was up +4.50% for November, bringing their YTD performance to -0.38%.

TGM attributed this result to their investment strategies in global equities (long European and UK, short US and Australian) and fixed interest (long US, short Japanese), while at the same time having no exposures in global currencies or at broad asset-class levels.

MM&E Capital Takeover Target Fund was down 7.80% during November bringing the year-to-date cumulative performance to a loss of 31.66%.

The Manager commented: "November was another difficult month for equity markets, and the Fund lost value in line with the performance of the benchmark ASX 300 Index. Stop losses were applied throughout the month, with positions falling 20% from entry price being automatically exited."

The Fund uses an event driven strategy where medium term (6-24 months) positions are taken in ASX listed stocks that meet the internal selection criteria.

BlackRock’s Asset Allocation Alpha Fund achieved a gain of 6.59% for the month bringing the year-to-date cumulative performance to positive 38.91%.

The Fund employs a global macro strategy and tactical asset allocation. The strategies adopted are thematic, concentrating on exploiting trends, likely developments and mis-pricing in global asset markets.

The Manager noted: “The strategies which contributed significantly to performance were Bond/Cash (primarily reflecting long duration positions in the UK, US, Germany and Australia); Currency (long Euro vs Polish Zloty, short Euro vs Japanese Yen, short Australian dollar and Canadian dollar vs US dollar); and to a lesser extent Equity/Equity (reflecting long US Growth vs US Value and long US large cap vs US small cap).”

Wilson Asset Management (WAM) reported negative performance in both their multi-strategy ASX-listed Active Fund (WAA) and their equity long/short Capital Fund (WAM). WAA returned a loss of 5.23% for November bringing the year-to-date cumulative performance to negative 12.62% while WAM returned a loss of 5.65% bringing the year-to-date cumulative performance to negative 34.21%.

WAA predominantly invests in ASX listed securities and Cash where appropriate investments cannot be identified. During November the Manager maintained of holding of approximately 80% of funds in cash. WAA offers investors exposure to an active trading style with the aim of achieving a sound return with a low correlation to traditional markets. The Manager noted: “This was achieved in our first eleven months with the Fund outperforming the All Ordinaries Accumulation Index by 27.8%.

WAM invests in ASX listed securities and employs an investment strategy which focuses on, but is not limited to, medium to small industrial companies, as well as under-researched and mis-priced stocks. The manager sees market opportunities through buying securities in entities through IPOs, placements or the purchase of block stock below what the manager believes is fair value. Acceptable diversification is achieved by investing in 20 to 30 securities over a range of industry sectors.

Apeiron's Global Macro Fund, which utilises re-pricing strategies in futures and FX markets, returned +0.12% in November, bringing its YTD return to +19.31% and its 12 month return to +18.98%.

Due to market volatility and unsettled liquidity during November, Apeiron elected to remain invested mainly in cash for most of the month, while waiting for low-risk entry levels to present themselves.