Please describe your investment philosophy as it pertains to managing hedge funds.
Our investment philosophy is centred on diversification across genuinely differentiated hedge strategies. Rather than trying to predict market movements, we focus on combining managers who can add value in different conditions, delivering more consistent and stable outcomes for investors over time.
What process do you follow to decide what instruments you will invest in?
Manager selection begins with maintaining active coverage of a broad universe of retail hedge funds, with a focus on identifying strategies that offer genuine diversification and repeatable alpha. Each manager is assessed through rigorous qualitative and quantitative due diligence, alongside an evaluation of how their investment style is expected to perform across different market environments. Selected managers are then combined at portfolio level to ensure appropriate balance, controlled exposures and appropriate risk management.
What is your competitive advantage?
Symmetry’s strength lies in its deep understanding of the South African hedge fund landscape and the unique return drivers underpinning individual manager styles. This enables informed, market-specific tactical deviations that reflect where certain strategies are best positioned in the cycle.
Portfolio construction is carefully designed to allow managers benefiting from favourable conditions to increase their contribution over time, while maintaining balance, diversification and disciplined risk control across the fund.
How do you manage hedge fund risks?
Risk is managed at manager selection level through diversification across strategies and styles, as well as at a portfolio level focused on daily compliance monitoring of exposure limits, liquidity and ongoing oversight. In managing risk through the portfolio construction process, diversification across investment styles is key in managing drawdowns, especially during market downturns. This is supported by bi-annual manager reviews, continuous portfolio assessment and ongoing monitoring of developments across the South African hedge fund universe.
What has been your biggest mistake in managing your hedge fund(s)?
Earlier in the fund’s history, some managers took longer than expected to deliver on their investment thesis. This experience reinforced an important lesson: a period of weaker performance does not necessarily indicate a flawed investment process, particularly when market conditions are not aligned with a manager’s style.
Distinguishing between a genuine deterioration in investment process or skill and temporary style headwinds is therefore critical. This has strengthened our emphasis on understanding what we are invested in and why, allowing us to remain patient with skilled managers through difficult environments.
It also helps avoid reactive decision-making and reduces the risk of adjusting exposure or allocating capital in a way that amounts to performance chasing.
How do you see the future of hedge funds?
The hedge fund industry is expected to continue evolving towards greater transparency, regulation and retail accessibility. Importantly, retail investors and advisors have become more deliberate in understanding the role and necessity of hedge funds within broader portfolio solutions, a trend reflected in the substantial growth in retail inflows.
As understanding of hedge fund strategies deepens, this structural demand is likely to strengthen further. The need for downside protection has been reinforced over the past decade, characterised by frequent exogenous shocks and periods of sharp market drawdowns. During recent heightened geopolitical uncertainty in March 2026, when many portfolios were positioned with elevated risk following strong equity markets locally and globally, our Diversified RI Hedge Fund of Funds provided capital protection and volatility dampening within diversified solutions by outperforming both local bonds and equities, protecting against more than 50% of equity losses for the month.
About SUVIRA BODHA | Suvira Bodha is Head of Strategic Investment Capability at Symmetry. She has extensive experience across manager research, portfolio construction and alternative investments, spanning both institutional and retail markets. Her expertise includes multi‑manager portfolio design and the evaluation of specialist investment strategies across listed and unlisted asset classes. Suvira holds a Business Science degree in Analytics from the University of Cape Town, is a CFA charterholder and a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.
