After bouncing back in February from a downer in January, hedge funds returned to their losing ways with all six of the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks sliding into negative territory. According to preliminary figures, which do not include the last two days of the month, as expected, equity long/short is the worst performer year to date, losing 1.7% for a YTD return of -6.2%. The biggest loser for the month, however, was convertible arbitrage, which plummeted 3.9% to -4.1%, leaving it with a 52-week change of -3.5%. The best-performing DJ strategies were equity market neutral, as of March 27, inched down 0.2% (-0.7% YTD) and event-driven, which slipped 0.3% (-1.6% YTD). Merger arbitrage fell 0.8% for a year-to-date performance of -0.4%, and the year’s second-worst performer, distressed securities, lost 1% for a YTD return of -5.0%. Convertible arbitrage was not the only strategy whose 52-week performance was in the red; distressed securities stood at -8.4% and equity market neutral, -0.5%. Whether final figures will markedly change the result remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Financial News says global macro hedge funds are making a comeback but are still risky. Among the four funds its cited to support that assertion was Bank of New York Mellon’s Mellon AlphaAccess, which lost 30.1% in the 12 months ended Feb. 29, and Dalton Strategic Partnership’s Melchior Global Macro Fund, which tumbled -21.1% for three-month period ended Jan. 31.