In March, stocks, gold, and bonds all declined, with star macro strategy products collectively experiencing withdrawals.

Securities Times reporter Shen Ning

In recent years, macro strategy products from private fund institutions have attracted capital thanks to their steady performance, with assets under management continuing to grow rapidly. However, since March, prices of major categories of assets around the world have fluctuated violently, at one point experiencing relatively large declines, causing drawdowns across net values of macro strategy products. Many star products were also not spared, drawing widespread attention in the market.

Among macro strategy products, Bridgewater’s All Weather strategy holds a benchmark position in the industry. A Securities Times reporter learned from sales channels that Bridgewater China’s macro products have recently suffered some drawdowns, and year-to-date returns have narrowed.

Channel insiders said that since March, the global macro environment has become complex and changeable. In the initial stage, the market was hit by an inflation shock triggered by supply-side disruptions, pushing global bulk commodity prices higher and putting overall pressure on stocks and bonds; afterward, rising risk-avoidance sentiment led to asset synchronization, and under the backdrop of ongoing geopolitical developments, combined with the impact of concentrated liquidation of crowded trades from the prior period (such as precious metals), a broad sell-off occurred across asset classes. Against this backdrop, correlations among major asset classes have increased significantly, and the diversification effect has shown temporary weakening; strategies that rely on such diversification inevitably experience volatility and drawdowns. From a long-term perspective, a balanced and diversified multi-asset portfolio can repair more quickly than a single-asset portfolio, and the long-term wealth accumulation effect is even more pronounced.

In addition to Bridgewater’s products, the net values of macro strategy products from many star private funds have also shown phased drawdowns recently. “In this round of drawdowns, we do indeed see that some macro strategy products experience drawdowns of more than 10%. But such volatility actually matches the product’s own risk-return characteristics. However, when you stretch the time horizon, there’s nothing particularly special about it.” The above-mentioned channel insider said.

A relevant负责人 at Qianxiang Asset told a Securities Times reporter that, recently, due to the simultaneous drawdowns in three categories of assets—stocks, gold, and bonds—the All Weather strategy and macro strategy products have all experienced some drawdown. Qianxiang’s quantitative All Weather product has also seen a small pullback recently. Traditional All Weather strategies focus mainly on holding long assets, and in a market where multiple asset classes decline in sync, they will face major challenges.

The负责人 also said that it is important to note that the All Weather strategy is not a sure-win approach. While correlations among different asset classes and related strategies are relatively low, they are not perfectly negative; it is still possible for resonance sell-offs to occur. But in the long term, its volatility and cyclical performance are significantly better than those of a single asset or a single strategy, offering higher value for money. As the market gradually returns to normal, the profits of All Weather strategies will also be gradually restored.

Industry insiders said that in international markets, macro strategies are generally divided into three categories: quantitative macro, discretionary macro, and systematic macro. Currently, in China, some macro strategies are mostly discretionary macro. Quantitative macro is constrained by domestic investment instruments and data, so its comparative advantages are not yet prominent. Discretionary macro, meanwhile, heavily depends on the experience-based judgment of investment research and personnel. Systematic macro emphasizes combining data with logic, and by using scientific risk budgeting and asset allocation, it can respond to complex and ever-changing macro environments. At its core, macro products adopt a top-down logic to judge the outlook for major asset classes, aiming to capture the long-term returns of major asset classes under different macro environments. Such products typically have relatively low long-term Sharpe ratios, but they have larger strategy capacity.

The main reason macro strategy products are so sought after by the market is that their performance is relatively steady. Data from Private Fund Ranking shows that as of March 20, 2026, among 469 macro strategy products with performance records, the average return rate this year-to-date is 3.13%. Of these, 343 products achieved positive returns, accounting for 73.13%. In 2025, there were 378 macro strategy products with performance records, with an average return rate of 25.96%; of them, 350 products achieved positive returns, accounting for 92.59%.

An analyst from a market-facing department at a Shanghai-based private fund with assets of 100 billion (RMB) said that from the perspective of the external environment, international geopolitical situations have continued to be unstable, and the A-share market’s overall valuations have rebounded from low levels, making it significantly more difficult to invest in a single asset. At the same time, the proportion of domestic institutional investors has continued to rise. Long-term capital such as pension funds and insurance funds has been entering the market at a faster pace, the wealth management market is becoming increasingly mature, and individual investors’ asset-allocation philosophies are also gradually changing. Macro strategy products, through diversified allocation and scientific risk-control management, can to a certain extent diversify risk and smooth portfolio volatility. This aligns with the current market’s demand to optimize portfolio structure and diversify the risk of a single market. In addition, last year’s strong performance in some macro products has further attracted more investors’ attention.

(Editor: Wen Jing)

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