April 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

Five of the six hedge fund strategies covered by Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes posted net-of-fees gains in April 2008.

Approximately one percent separated the top three performing strategies for April. Equity long/short led the way with a net-of-fee gain of 3.54%. Event driven came in second with a return of 2.60%, and distressed securities rounded out the top three with a gain of 1.39%. Merger arbitrage and equity market neutral followed with returns of 0.27% and 0.08%, respectively. Convertible arbitrage posted the only losses for April with a return of -1.95%.

On a YTD basis, five of the six strategies still remain with net-of-fee losses. Event driven, aided by its solid performance in April, became the new leading strategy for the year returning 80 basis points, and the only strategy with positive gains. Merger arbitrage and equity market neutral are not far behind posting small losses of -0.37% and -0.43%, respectively. Equity long/short moved out of last place, but is still down for the year with a return of -2.89%. The remaining two strategies, distressed securities is down -4.17% and, lastly, convertible arbitrage continued to slide, falling to -6.63% for the year.

On a float-adjusted basis, the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000, the only broad measure of the domestic equity market, returned 4.98% (5.05% on a full-cap basis) in April bringing its YTD loss to -5.01% (-5.04% on a full-cap basis). The fixed income asset class, as measured by the Dow Jones Corporate Bond Index gained 0.79% this month for a cumulative gain of 1.68% for the year.

Finally, the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Index, the broadest measure of global equity markets, was up 5.38% for the month decreasing its YTD loss to -4.45% for 2008.

Note: April 2008 figures for the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks are based on daily estimates net of fees. Final performance figures for April 208 will be available towards the end of May 2008. The methodology used to calculate the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks is available on www.djhedgefundindexes.com .