Long‑short tilt: debt plus market‑neutral
One hybrid manager, Arudha, is running roughly a 65% allocation to debt strategies and 35% to market‑neutral equity — a mix the manager kept steady through a low‑volatility March. (x.com) Separately, social feeds note funds are covering shorts at the fastest pace in six years — the March short/long ratio ran about 7.6:1 in some measures — signaling a shift in classic long‑short positioning. (x.com)
Arudha’s hybrid long-short fund is holding to a debt-heavy stance, with up to 65 percent in debt and money-market paper and at least 35 percent in fully hedged, market-neutral equities. (arudhasif.com) Bandhan Asset Management launched the strategy on January 9, 2026 as Arudha’s first Specialized Investment Fund product. The offer document says the debt sleeve targets short- to medium-term instruments, while the equity book is built to stay hedged rather than make outright market calls. (moneycontrol.com) In plain terms, market-neutral means the manager pairs longs and shorts so gains are meant to come from price gaps between stocks, not from a broad market rise. Arudha’s materials say the equity allocation is fully hedged, and the strategy can also use unhedged derivatives up to 25 percent of the portfolio within its limits. (cnbctv18.com) That setup sits inside India’s new Specialized Investment Fund regime, which began in 2025 as a middle ground between mutual funds and more bespoke products. The Securities and Exchange Board of India set a minimum investment threshold of 10 lakh rupees at the Permanent Account Number level for these strategies. (sebi.gov.in) The other half of the story is in hedge-fund positioning: Goldman Sachs data cited by Bloomberg showed hedge funds sold global equities in March at the fastest pace in 13 years. Bloomberg said short sales outpaced long purchases by 7.6 to 1 in that March flow data. (bloomberg.com) A week later, Bloomberg reported that hedge funds were closing bearish bets on United States stocks at the fastest pace since March 2020. Reuters separately reported on April 13 that hedge funds had swung back into bullish stock bets the prior week on expectations of a ceasefire in Iran, citing Goldman client notes. (bloomberg.com) (reuters.com) Those two moves are not the same trade. Arudha’s structure is designed to keep equity exposure hedged and lean on debt carry, while the Goldman flow data describe fast-moving hedge funds cutting or adding directional risk as macro headlines changed through March and early April. (arudhasif.com) (reuters.com) India’s fund industry is already listing live net asset values for Specialized Investment Fund strategies, including Arudha’s equity long-short product and rival long-short offerings. That gives investors a regulated wrapper for strategies that used to sit farther from the mutual-fund mainstream, even as global long-short money is whipping around with the news cycle. (amfiindia.com)
