The global hedge fund industry is on track to bring in more net new money in 2012 than 2011, despite the average fund looking set to underperform the S&P 500 for the fourth year running.

According to Atlanta-based data provider eVestment, investors added an estimated net $6.6bn to hedge funds in November, reversing the previous month's net outflows and bringing net investor inflows to $33.4bn for 2012, almost $10bn ahead of the 2011 full-year net inflow.