LONDON: Hedge funds returned 1.3 per cent in September, with managers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East outperforming their North American rivals, according to a JPMorgan client note on Thursday, seen by Reuters on Friday.

Global equities in Sept­ember climbed 3.4pc. An index of developed market sovereign bonds rose around 0.7pc last month.

The JPMorgan note, which tracks hedge fund trading, said positioning in US stocks was only “somewhat bullish”, indicating an expectation for equities to rise.

Crowding in the biggest “Magnificent Sev­en” tech stocks, which include Apple, Amazon and Nvidia, remained near historical highs, the note said.

In Europe, stock-pickers tended to bet that equities would rise. But multi-strategy funds — those that trade many strategies — and quantitative funds, which use algorithms, tended to wager that stock prices would decline.

In Asia, where stocks rose, hedge funds had more bets on a decline than a rise, the note said.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2025