Hedge funds are setting records at the end of historically volatile 2020

One of the most turbulent years in modern history is coming to an end — and hedge funds are racking up their best returns in a generation.

Hedge Fund Research’s HFRI 500 — an equal-weighted index of the world’s largest hedge funds’ returns — soared 6.2 percent in November from October, its biggest month-to-month gain since December 1999 and the second-largest month-to-month increase since the index’s inception in 1990.

Year to date, the HFRI 500 is up a whopping 7.3 percent.

The record-setting monthly performance comes after the coronavirus outbreak sent 2020 into a tailspin, shuttering huge portions of the global economy, sending unemployment soaring, and putting the market into a March crash that saw the S&P 500 fall more than 33 percent in less than a month.