Hedge fund AQR heads towards year-end with double digit returns, source says

LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Cliff Asness's AQR Capital Management started the final month of the year with positive returns in several funds, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. 

The $179 billion hedge fund finished November 0.4% largely flat in its multi-strategy fund, Apex Strategy. It had generated a 16.2% return from the start of the year to November 30, the source said.

The fund posted a 3.1% return for the month in its AQR Delphi Long-Short Equity Strategy, bringing the overall performance to a positive 16.4% for the year. AQR's Managed Futures Full Volatility Strategy lost 0.4% for the month of November but is still up 19.2% year-to-date. 

The hedge fund's Helix Strategy, which follows trends in a diverse set of harder-to-access markets, returned 0.7% in November and is up 13.7% for the year to date. 

These annual returns surpass a wider collection of systematic hedge funds, whose algorithms ride market trends until they peter out. An index that tracks these kinds of trend funds is largely flat, up 0.31% for the year to November 28, according to Societe Generale's indices. 

All returns listed were net of fees.

(Reporting by Nell Mackenzie; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe)