The Fortitude Capital Absolute Return Trust (FCART) has won the Australian Hedge Fund of the Year award for 2009.
The BlackRock Asset Allocation Alpha Fund - Class D and Kohinoor Series Two Fund were named as runners up for the award.
Winners were judged by an independent group of hedge fund researchers, according to the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) Australia, which supports the awards.
Funds were judged on criteria including absolute returns versus their peers over varying time periods, sortino ratios (a risk-adjusted measure of performance) and rates of performance drawdown and recovery.
FCART is managed by Sydney-based alternative investment manager Fortitude Capital, whose chief investment officer is John Corr. The product is a multi-strategy, market neutral fund specialising in listed Australian equities and derivatives.
FCART had been on a 20-month streak of uninterrupted gains as at August 2009, figures from its monthly report show. The product gained 4.83 per cent from the start of 2009 until August.
FCART jumped 12.29 per cent in the 2008 calendar year, when the S&P/ASX 200 Index and MSCI World ex-Australia Index of stocks plunged over 40 per cent amid the global financial crisis.
Australian hedge funds on average lost 17.74 per cent last year, according to Australian Fund Monitors.
