With the average hedge fund failing to beat the U.S. stock market for four years in a row, the reputation of Wall Street's Masters of the Universe is taking a beating of late.

According to London's Financial Times, a simple portfolio of 60% U.S. equities and 40% bonds generated the same 7.3% return that an average hedge fund did over the past decade.

Adding fuel to the fire was last week's report that the top recommendations of the hedge fund world's leading lights at the annual Ira Sohn hedge fund conference in New York failed to beat the gains in the S&P 500 over the past 12 months.

Sure, there were some winners among last year's picks. Glenview's Larry Robbins pick Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) ended the year up 140%. Nevertheless, the average return on the top recommendations added up to less than the S&P's average return of 22%.

That, of course, didn't keep this year's Masters of the Universe from making big predictions for the coming year. Stan Druckenmiller is betting on Google (GOOG) and against the Australian dollar (AUD). China Bear Jim Chanos recommends shorting Seagate Technology Public Limited Company (STX). Greenlight's David Einhorn is betting bet on Oil States International Inc. (OIS). Jeff Grundlach is shorting Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG), dismissing "a gourmet burrito" as an oxymoron.

So, have the giants of the hedge fund world lost their touch?

Certainly, the hedge fund world has become more competitive.

I have more investment information at my finger tips on my new HTC One (sorry, Apple, I couldn't wait any longer...) than George Soros ever did in his prime.

So, it's no surprise that it is harder to eke out market beating returns, consistently.

That said, compiling a virtual track record of hedge fund managers based on last year's recommendations as if they were "buy-and-hold" investments completely makes for little more than an entertaining news story.

And here's why...

With over one-third of 2013 behind us, it's worth taking a look at what have been the world's best performing stock markets so far this year.

I keep my finger in the pulse of global markets by monitoring 36 global stock markets for my firm Global Guru Capital on a daily basis. Note that these are all stock markets that you can invest in at a click of a mouse through a U.S.-listed exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks an index based on that market.

Truth be told, there isn't much of an overarching investment theme that connects global stock markets this year.

In fact, just about the only thing the top five markets have in common is that they have next to nothing in common.

The Top Five Stock Markets in 2013

1. The Philippines

The Philippines has always had a low profile, even among the global investing crowd. Viewed as the sick man of Asia, it never had the cache of its higher-profile "Asian Tiger" rivals — Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan or South Korea. And with a population of only 95 million, the Philippines does not have the demographic heft of, say, Indonesia (population 243 million), so that it could ever rival larger, BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies.

But what the Philippines does have is economic growth, with its gross domestic product (GDP) expanding 6% this year. Moody's expects the same rate of expansion in 2014. And if favorable economic trends continue, growth could hit a China-like 8% by 2016. No wonder Moody's called this former economic underachiever one of the "brightest parts of a generally gloomy global picture."

The Philippines' greatest coup came last week when S&P upgraded its debt to investment grade. Fitch already had done so on March 27. The S&P upgrade was critical because some institutional funds require at least two investment-grade ratings before investing. This is something that even an emerging markets star like Turkey had yet to achieve.

GLOBAL GURU CAPITAL – MONTHLY UPDATE

April 2013

All of the Global Guru Capital funds were profitable for the month of April 2013, as well as year-to-date 2013.

The "Ivy Plus" Investment Program gained 2.13%. The "Global Gains" Investment Program rose 2.65%. The "Double Your Dividends" Investment Program added 1.71%.

THE "IVY PLUS" INVESTMENT PROGRAM
IMPRESSIVE GAINS IN REAL ESTATE

The "Ivy Plus" Investment Program added 2.13% for the month of April.

The "Ivy Plus" portfolio posted a monthly gain of better than 2% for the second time in 2013

U. S. Real Estate and International Real Estate were the largest gainers in the portfolio, posting nearly identical 7.22% and 7.16% gains, respectively.

The Developed Large and Developed Small Cap funds also turned in a strong performance, and Private Equity jumped 4.45%. Fixed Income swung into profitability as all four asset classes posted positive gains for April.

Commodities and timber were the only asset classes to fall, tumbling in tandem with the broader commodities markets, and hit hard by an unprecedented drop in gold prices .

The financial crash of 2008 shook much of the financial world, and many of its investment models, to its core. This includes the much-vaunted "Yale model" of endowment investing that still guides the investment strategies of the top universities in the world.

For a period of more than 20 years stretching back into the mid 1980s, university endowments seemed blessed by fairy dust. The top three U.S. university endowments — Yale, Harvard and Stanford — consistently returned more than 15% per year over that period.

That changed in 2008, when the top university endowments plummeted by 25% to 30%. The combined losses for Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton reached nearly $23 billion in the 12 months ending June 30, 2009.

The endowments rebounded sharply from the dark days of 2008 during the next two years. But once again, they had a rough time over the last 18 months or so. The Harvard endowment's returns were flat through the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012. And the Yale and Stanford endowments rose only 4.7% and 1%, respectively, during the same period. And embarrassingly, all of them trailed the U.S. S&P 500 by a large margin.

The poor performance of emerging markets, private equity and timber — exactly those alternative asset classes that had historically allowed them to outperform the U.S. stock market over long periods — dragged down the endowments' recent investment returns. Yet with these alternative asset classes rebounding strongly in recent months, top university endowments are once again well on their way to generating S&P 500-beating returns.

And with exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that allow you to invest in these same asset classes, you can mimic the endowments' strategy in your own investment portfolio. I have done the same for my clients at my investment firm Global Guru Capital.

Yale's David Swensen: The "Babe Ruth of Investing"?