February 2008 Performance Review Of The Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks - A Monthly Report From Dow Jones Indexes On The Performance Of The Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks

Four of the six hedge fund strategies covered by Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes posted positive returns for the month of February.

Merger Arbitrage and Equity Long/Short were the leaders for the month with net-of-fees gains of 1.95% and 1.49%, respectively. However, Merger Arbitrage is the only strategy with positive gains for the year, and Equity Long/Short has lost 4.67% in the first two months -- the worst so far in 2008. Event Driven and Equity Market Neutral posted returns of 0.86% and 0.63%, respectively. Convertible Arbitrage posted a loss of -0.02% and is down 0.24% for the year. Lastly, Distressed Securities continued to decline for the year, losing -0.51% in February and bringing its YTD performance to -4.01%.

On a float-adjusted basis, the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000, the only broad measure of the domestic equity market, returned -3.01% (-2.97% on a full-cap basis) in February, bringing its YTD performance to -8.89% (-8.91% on a full-cap basis).

The fixed income asset class, as measured by the Dow Jones Corporate Bond Index returned -0.13% this month and its cumulative gain for 2008 stands at 1.56%.

Finally, the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Index, the broadest measure of global equity markets, posted a return of 0.48% in the second month of 2008 and has a year-to-date loss of -7.85%.

Note: February 2008 figures for the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks are based on daily estimates net of fees. Final performance figures for February 2008 will be available towards the end of March 2008. The methodology used to calculate the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks is available on www.djhedgefundindexes.com .