Do absolute return funds need to short?

The inability to short individual stocks has led to a number of absolute return funds posting negati...

The inability to short individual stocks has led to a number of absolute return funds posting negative returns and failing to meet their benchmarks, the BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha team claims. Last year several absolute return funds did not meet their Libor targets while only one fund in the IMA Absolute Return sector - Threadneedle Absolute Return Bond - beat the IMA Money Market sector average. Nick Osborne, Mark Lyttleton's co-manager on the £1.3bn BlackRock fund, says the poor performance delivered by a number of absolute return funds over the last 18 months shows many managers do ...