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

Securities Times reporter Shen Ning

In recent years, private fund institutions’ macro strategy products have attracted capital favor due to their steady performance, and their assets under management have continued to expand rapidly. However, since March, prices of assets across global major categories have swung sharply, once experiencing substantial declines, causing net asset values of macro strategy products to pull back collectively. Many flagship 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. Securities Times reporter learned from sales channels that recent macro products under Bridgewater China have experienced some pullback, and their year-to-date returns have narrowed somewhat.

A person from the distribution channel said that since March, the global macro environment has become complex and changeable. In the initial stage, the market suffered an inflation shock triggered by supply-side disruptions, pushing global commodities prices higher and putting broad pressure on stocks and bonds. Subsequently, rising risk-avoidance sentiment led to asset correlation and resonance; under the continued escalation of geopolitical events, combined with the impact of concentrated liquidation of crowded trades from the previous period (such as precious metals), various asset classes were broadly sold off. Against this backdrop, the correlation between major asset classes has increased significantly, and the diversification effect of investments has been weakened in stages. Volatility and drawdowns in related strategies are, to an extent, unavoidable. Looking at the long term, balanced and diversified multi-asset portfolios recover faster than single-asset approaches, and their effect of long-term wealth accumulation is also more pronounced.

In addition to products under Bridgewater, many flagship private fund macro strategy products have also seen stage-by-stage pullbacks recently. “In this round of pullbacks, we indeed saw some macro strategy products experiencing drawdowns of more than 10%, but such volatility actually aligns with the product’s own risk-return characteristics. However, when you stretch the cycle, that doesn’t mean anything particularly special.” The aforementioned person from the distribution channel said.

A relevant person from Qianxiang Asset told Securities Times reporter that recently, due to synchronized pullbacks across three asset classes—stocks, gold, and bonds—both All Weather strategies and macro strategy products have seen some pullback, and Qianxiang’s quantitative All Weather products have also made a small correction recently. Traditional All Weather strategies mainly hold long positions in multiple assets, and in a market where multiple asset classes fall in tandem, they face tougher tests.

The responsible person also said that it is important to note that All Weather strategies are not guaranteed to make money without loss. While correlations among various asset classes and related strategies are low, they are not negatively correlated, so a resonance-driven decline is still possible. But in the long run, their volatility and cyclical performance are significantly better than those of a single asset and a single strategy, offering higher value for money. As the market gradually returns to normal, the All Weather strategies’ profitability will also be gradually restored.

Industry insiders say that macro strategies are mainly divided internationally into three categories: quantitative macro, discretionary (subjective) macro, and systematic macro. At present, in China, some macro strategies are largely discretionary macro. Quantitative macro is constrained by domestic investable instruments and data, so its comparative advantages are not outstanding. Discretionary macro depends heavily on the experience-based judgments of research and investment personnel. Systematic macro emphasizes combining data and logic, using scientific risk budgeting and asset allocation to respond to complex and changeable macro environments. In essence, macro products adopt a top-down logic to judge the direction of major asset classes, aiming to capture the long-term returns of major asset classes under different macro conditions. These products’ long-term Sharpe ratios are usually relatively low, but their strategy capacity is relatively large.

Macro strategy products have been so sought after by the market primarily because their performance is relatively steady. According to private fund data platform PaiPaiWang, as of March 20, 2026, among 469 macro strategy products with performance records, the average return since the beginning of the year is 3.13%. Of these, 343 products achieved positive returns, accounting for 73.13%. In 2025, among 378 macro strategy products with performance records, the average return was 25.96%, and 350 products achieved positive returns, accounting for 92.59%.

A market负责人 from a “billion yuan” private fund in Shanghai analyzed that from the external environment perspective, international geopolitical conditions have continued to be unstable, and the overall valuation of China’s A-share market has rebounded from low levels, making it significantly more difficult to invest in a single asset. At the same time, the share of domestic institutional investors has continued to increase; the pace at which long-term funds such as pension funds and insurance funds enter the market has accelerated. The wealth management market is becoming increasingly mature, and individual investors’ asset allocation concepts are also gradually changing. By enabling risk diversification through diversified allocation and scientific risk control management, macro strategy products can, to a certain extent, diversify risk and smooth portfolio volatility, which aligns with current market needs to optimize portfolio structure and diversify the risk of a single market. In addition, strong performance from some macro products last year also further attracted more investors’ attention.

(Editor: Wen Jing)

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