July 2005 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

In an encore performance to June, once again the entire family of hedge fund strategy benchmarks covered by Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes posted gains for the month of July 2005. The event driven and equity long/short (U.S.) strategies were up 2.53% and 2.08%. This was followed by the performance of the distressed securities strategy which was up 1.94%. The merger arbitrage, convertible arbitrage and equity market neutral strategies were up 0.96%, 0.94% and 0.23%.

Except for the convertible arbitrage benchmark which was down -6.57% for the year, the remaining indexes were up for 2005 – event driven (4.39%), distressed securities (3.97%), merger arbitrage (2.71%), equity market neutral (0.87%) and equity long/short (U.S.) (0.26%).

On a float-adjusted basis, the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 was up 4.14% (4.19% on a full-cap basis) for the month of July 2005 allowing the domestic broad equity markets to post gains of 4.18 % (4.21% on a full-cap basis) for the year. The Dow Jones Corporate Bond Index returned -1.10% for the month resulting in cumulative gains of 1.46% for the year. The world equity markets as measured by the Dow Jones World Total Market Index gained 3.80% in July putting the index up by exactly that amount on a YTD basis - the index was flat for the year at the end of June 2005.

Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks

Note: July 2005 figures for the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks are based on daily estimates net of fees. Final performance figures for July 2005 will be available towards the end of August. The methodology used to calculate the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks is available on www.djhedgefundindexes.com.