Gold and coffee boost hedge fund returns in September, says Societe Generale By Reuters

By Nell Mackenzie

LONDON (Reuters) – Gold and coffee contributed to a positive result for trend-following hedge funds in September, a Societe Generale (OTC: ) note showed on Tuesday, thanks to record commodity prices, rising stocks and falling interest rates.

Gold is up nearly 30% this year, hitting a record high on September 26. The precious metal was one of the best performing financial assets in 2024 for these types of hedge funds that use price data and trading volumes to find and trade market trends. , said the SocGen note seen by Reuters.

Robusta coffee futures also hit record highs last month.

Major coffee producer Brazil has suffered a drought that has affected much of the crop for the 2024-2025 season, pushing prices higher.

The average return for the group of 96 funds tracked by Societe Generale’s prime brokerage trading desk returned about 0.7% for September, with the highest return coming in at a positive 7.41% and the lowest at a negative 15.77%, the note states.

More than half of trend funds posted a positive return for the month, the bank’s research showed.

The Australian dollar, while boosting hedge fund performance in September, has been the biggest loser of trend hedge funds this year, the SocGen note said.

Other year-to-date losers included the Mexican peso, silver and , it said. Sterling, while proving a positive position in September, has still been a losing position for trend funds this year.

The bank’s research did not show which pairs were on the other side of the currency crosses, nor how the commodity trades were structured.

Notable new positions that trend-followers entered at the end of September included long positions in the Hong Kong stock index, sugar, silver, weak hogs, German and Spanish stock indexes, the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars, the bank said.

A long position is essentially a bet that an asset will increase in value.