Investors that look to profit from global markets regardless of their overall direction have been buoyed this month after new research published yesterday showed that hedge funds that put equal bets on share prices rising as they do on them falling are the only portfolios to have made money in October.

Equity market neutral hedge funds made 0.3% this month to October 20 according to the investable hedge fund index of data provider Hedge Fund Research. The investable index is only a subset of the industry, but is considered a bellwether for broader performance.