Hedge fund returns should not be compared directly to equity benchmarks. Hedge fund marketers will always say this, and with some reason: hedge fund strategies have a different risk-return profile from equities. Many allocate a lot of money to “short” positions, betting against the market. So it is not necessarily that surprising or damning when equity hedge funds suffer a very bad year compared to the index, as happened last year. That was a big part of my discussion with Hedge Fund Research’s Ken Heinz in the latest Note video:
But it is interesting to look at how hedge fund investors seem to have behaved. And in aggregate, they look a lot like classic retail mutual fund investors, chasing performance and piling in after a good run. Inflows to hedge funds last year were slightly lower than they were in 1993, according to HFR (and obviously far smaller in percentage terms). The great boost to hedge funds’ assets came in the years after the dotcom crash of 2000, when many funds managed to rise. Read more
James Mackintosh is the Financial Times' Investment Editor, writing and presenting the daily Short View column and video. In 16 years at the FT his posts have included comment editor, motor industry editor and hedge funds correspondent, as well as spells in the Parliamentary lobby and Paris. He was the first reporter hired for FT.com, joining two weeks before it launched.
John Authers is the Financial Times' Senior Investment Columnist, writing the Saturday Long View and a regular Monday column. In a 22-year career at the FT, his previous posts have included global head of the Lex column, investment editor, US markets editor, Mexico City bureau chief and US banking correspondent. His latest book is The Fearful Rise of Markets. 