Briefly:

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The Hennessee Hedge Fund Index continued to outperform the S&P 500 in 2009 advancing 3.37% in July to take the index to a positive 15.5% year to date.

“Hedge funds underperformed in July, as we would expect, but were able to capture a good portion of the market rally in July,” says Lee Hennessee, managing principal with Hennessee Group.

Hedge funds also outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which increased 8.58% in July, up 4.50% year to date.

Meanwhile individual strategies performed positively across the board. The Hennessee Long/Short Equity Index gained 2.89% in July (up 13.39% year to date) and the Hennessee Arbitrage/Event Driven Index rose 3.62% in July (up 18.49% year to date).

The distressed equity group advanced 5.16% in July, moving to a positive 23.47% year to date, while the convertible arbitrage group improved 6.21%, up 31.64% for the year.

Also moving upward, the merger arbitrage group increased 0.27% in July, totaling 5.28% year to date, and the global/macro category moved up 4.12% in July, a total of 15.89% for the year.

Last, the macro category rose 2.67% in July and was up 8.24% for the year.

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Scotia partners with NYFIX

Scotia Capital has entered into a strategic alliance with NYFIX Inc. to deliver an independent, broker-neutral, best-in-class indications of interest (IOI) service to the Canadian equities market.

Under this partnership, the next generation of Scotia’s IOI service, TradeChat, will be powered by NYFIX’s global IOI service, ioinet.

NYFIX provides electronic trading solutions and its integration capabilities is anticipated to greatly enhance TradeChat clients’ ability to quickly find, and capitalize on, both Canadian and global trading opportunities without costly information leakage and market impact.

TradeChat is the pre-eminent IOI service in Canada with more than 40 buy-side and 30 of the top sell-side firms the service.

The addition of these firms to the nearly 500 firms that are already members of the NYFIX ioinet community will further broaden the global reach of service, and promote additional trading into the Canadian markets.

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National Bank changes fund lineup

National Bank Financial announced today that it will terminate the Emissary and Diplomat portfolios as of Dec.11, 2009.

The bank is terminating these funds to streamline its fund offerings. The following funds are being closed:

• Emissary Canadian Equity; • Emissary Canadian Fixed Income; • Emissary U.S. Growth; • Emissary U.S. Value; • Emissary U.S. Small/Mid Cap; • Emissary International Equity (EAFE) ; • Diplomat Balanced Portfolio; • Diplomat Growth Portfolio; • Diplomat Maximum Growth Portfolio

At 4 p.m. on Aug. 12, 2009, the Emissary and Diplomat portfolios will be closed to new purchase, with the exception of pre-established systematic purchase and distribution reinvestment plans.

Redemptions will be accepted until Dec. 11, 2009.

(08/12/09)