After gains in most markets in July, hedge funds posted aggregate returns of +1.36% for the month. Equity long/short and event driven strategies performed best, while global macro strategies declined slightly. Gross leverage across all prime brokerage accounts increased from 1.81 to 1.84 as some managers added short exposures despite rising markets. Leverage was above average for some equity-biased strategies but below average for others like multi-strategy funds.