Hedge Funds Finish the Quarter on a Strong Note; Led by Emerging Markets.

GREENWICH, Conn. -- The Van Global Hedge Fund Index ("VGHFI" or the "Index") gained 1.7% in September while the Van Composite Investable Index ("Investable Index") increased by 1.50%, according to hedge fund index provider Van Money Manager Research, LLC (VAN).

"For the second consecutive month, all twenty of VAN's individual hedge fund strategy and sub-strategy indices were positive, with Emerging Markets (+4.3%) the clear winner in September," noted Kevin Campbell, Vice President of VAN. "This strategy has experienced a prolonged period of attractive returns, beginning in October 2002. Over the three-year period, the Van Global Emerging Markets Index increased by 90% and has experienced only six losing months. The second best performing strategy over this time period, Distressed Securities, increased by approximately 67%."

Rising equity markets provided an attractive environment for Long/Short Equity funds, which gained 1.9% on average. Funds with an Opportunistic investment style gained the most, 2.8% on average. Even those managers with a dedicated short bias profited during the month (+0.4%) despite increasing equity prices. Higher energy prices and rising interest rates and the volatility stemming from hurricanes in the Gulf Coast region provided attractive investment opportunities for managers with a directional bias.

Convertible Arbitrage remains the only strategy in the red for the year. Four consecutive positive months for the strategy, however, resulted in the loss for this index improving to -2.3% through September.

As currently calculated, September 2005 returns for the Van Global Hedge Fund Indices are shown below.

September    YTD
                                             2005      2005
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
        Van Global Hedge Fund Index            1.7%       6.2%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
        Market Neutral Group                   1.2%       4.0%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
          Equity Market Neutral                0.8%       5.6%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
          Event-Driven                         0.9%       6.0%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
             Distressed Securities             1.1%       7.0%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
             Merger Arbitrage                  0.3%       4.8%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
             Special Situations                0.8%       5.6%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
          Market Neutral Arbitrage             1.5%       2.3%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
             Convertible Arbitrage             1.7%      -2.3%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
             Fixed Income Arbitrage            1.8%       5.2%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
             Other Arbitrage                   1.6%       3.5%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
             Statistical Arbitrage             0.1%       4.2%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
        Long/Short Equity Group                1.9%       7.9%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
          Aggressive Growth                    2.3%       5.6%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
          Opportunistic                        2.8%      10.6%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
          Short Selling                        0.4%       4.3%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
          Value                                1.6%       8.3%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
        Directional Trading Group              1.5%       2.2%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
          Futures                              1.1%       0.1%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
          Macro                                2.7%       5.8%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
          Market Timing                        0.6%       1.4%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
        Specialty Strategies Group             2.7%       8.8%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
          Emerging Markets                     4.3%      13.3%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
          Income                               1.0%       5.2%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------
          Multi-Strategy                       1.5%       5.0%
        --------------------------------- --------- ----------

The Van Global Hedge Fund Index rose to a value of 13,154.65 in September. The Index had an initial value of 1,000 at January 1, 1988. Over its 17 year and 9 month history, the Index generated a net compound annualized return of 15.6%, compared to a 12.0% compound annualized return for the S&P 500. Past performance of the Van Global Hedge Fund Index may be viewed at our sister company's website at www.vanhedge.com.

Van Composite Investable Index

The Van Composite Investable Index posted a strong return of 1.50% in September and is up 4.41% for the year. The Investable Index has achieved an annualized return of 11.85% versus an annualized return of 11.7% for the VGHFI since its inception. Its correlation of 0.96 to the Van Global Hedge Fund Index demonstrates the Investable Index's ability to represent the broader hedge fund universe.

Comparative Benchmarks

For comparison purposes, the S&P 500 gained 0.8%, the Morgan Stanley Capital International World Equity Index ("MSCI WEI") gained 2.5%, the Nikkei 225 gained 9.4% and the Dow Jones Europe Stoxx Index gained 2.1%. The Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index ("LBABI") lost -1.0%.

Van Money Manager Research, LLC ("VAN") is a global hedge fund index provider that gathers information on hedge funds worldwide. VAN bases its work on its and its affiliates' pioneering research on hedge funds begun in the early 1990s and by drawing on one of the world's largest hedge fund databases.

The Index represents the average return of hedge funds tracked by VAN and serves as one of the hedge fund industry's longest-running benchmarks of overall performance.

Final September returns for the Van Hedge Fund Indices will be calculated at the end of October, after additional funds have submitted their returns to VAN. Those results take the place of the returns reported herein. Final September returns for the Van Global Hedge Fund Indices will be posted at www.vanhedge.com when they become available.

VAN's hedge fund index information is a compilation of information received (and not audited or independently verified) from the hedge funds in VAN's databases and may not be representative of all hedge funds. VAN provides no warranties as to the accuracy of the underlying information as reported by the managers, nor does VAN perform due diligence on all such reporting managers. Hedge fund returns are net of fees and performance allocations. The timing of the deduction of such fees and performance allocations may affect the reported performance. The September Van Global Hedge Fund Indices as reported herein were created using a sample of 926 funds. Different statistics may be based on different numbers of funds. Averages are equal-weighted. Past results are not indicative of future performance. Please see www.vanhedge.com/pdf/vanindex.pdf for more information regarding the Van Global Hedge Fund Indices.