China’s equity markets capped off a strong quarter, with the MSCI China All Shares index rising 1.4% for March and 9.2% for Q1.  China outperformed both emerging and developed markets on the back of stronger policy support and investor enthusiasm in the wake of the DeepSeek news earlier in the year.  

Alpha generation was strong for Goku’s strategies in the first quarter, with the market neutral strategy (Cayman) gaining 2.8% for March and 4.4% for the first quarter.  Single stock long, single stock shorts, as well as style factors all contributed positively for the quarter, with the majority of the returns being driven by residual risk.  

The second quarter is off to a volatile start, driven primarily by the trade tariff news out of the United States.  While the market backdrop has been difficult, our strategies have fared relatively better with flat to slightly positive alpha month-to-date in April.  While we expect the market environment to remain volatile in the near term, the more structural tailwinds of smaller quant industry AUM and better liquidity in China to remain tailwinds for the rest of the year.