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101-401: Broadly speaking, StatArb is actually any strategy that is bottom-up, beta -neutral in approach and uses statistical/econometric techniques in order to provide signals for execution. Signals are often generated through a contrarian mean reversion principle but can also be designed using such factors as lead/lag effects, corporate activity, short-term momentum , etc. This is usually referred to as

202-554: A ) Var ⁡ ( r b ) {\displaystyle \rho _{a,b}\equiv {\frac {\operatorname {Cov} (r_{a},r_{b})}{\sqrt {\operatorname {Var} (r_{a})\operatorname {Var} (r_{b})}}}} , market beta can also be written as where ρ i , m {\displaystyle \rho _{i,m}} is the correlation of the two returns, and σ i {\displaystyle \sigma _{i}} , σ m {\displaystyle \sigma _{m}} are

303-414: A bull market , distressed investing works best during a bear market . Risk arbitrage or merger arbitrage includes such events as mergers , acquisitions, liquidations, and hostile takeovers . Risk arbitrage typically involves buying and selling the stocks of two or more merging companies to take advantage of market discrepancies between acquisition price and stock price. The risk element arises from

404-439: A counterparty to derivative contracts , and lends securities for particular investment strategies, such as long/short equities and convertible bond arbitrage . It can provide custodial services for the fund's assets, and trade execution and clearing services for the hedge fund manager. Hedge fund administrators are typically responsible for valuation services, and often operations , and accounting . Calculation of

505-1000: A lack of transparency . Another common perception of hedge funds is that their managers are not subject to as much regulatory oversight and/or registration requirements as other financial investment managers, and more prone to manager-specific idiosyncratic risks such as style drifts, faulty operations, or fraud. New regulations introduced in the US and the EU as of 2010 required hedge fund managers to report more information, leading to greater transparency. In addition, investors, particularly institutional investors, are encouraging further developments in hedge fund risk management, both through internal practices and external regulatory requirements. The increasing influence of institutional investors has led to greater transparency: hedge funds increasingly provide information to investors including valuation methodology, positions, and leverage exposure. Hedge funds share many of

606-535: A "fundamental growth" strategy invest in companies with more earnings growth than the overall stock market or relevant sector, while funds using a " fundamental value " strategy invest in undervalued companies. Funds that use quantitative and financial signal processing techniques for equity trading are described as using a "quantitative directional" strategy. Funds using a " short bias " strategy take advantage of declining equity prices using short positions. Event-driven strategies concern situations in which

707-440: A CTA from a regulatory perspective and the main divide is between systematic and discretionary strategies. A classification framework for CTA/Macro Strategies can be found in the reference. Directional investment strategies use market movements, trends, or inconsistencies when picking stocks across a variety of markets. Computer models can be used, or fund managers will identify and select investments. These types of strategies have

808-431: A computerized system, known as "systematic/quantitative". The amount of diversification within the fund can vary; funds may be multi-strategy, multi-fund, multi-market, multi-manager, or a combination. Sometimes hedge fund strategies are described as " absolute return " and are classified as either " market neutral " or "directional". Market neutral funds have less correlation to overall market performance by "neutralizing"

909-406: A finite period of time, a low probability market movement may impose heavy short-term losses. If such short-term losses are greater than the investor's funding to meet interim margin calls, its positions may need to be liquidated at a loss even when its strategy's modeled forecasts ultimately turn out to be correct. The 1998 default of Long-Term Capital Management was a widely publicized example of

1010-521: A fund has too much exposure to a particular investment, sector, trading strategy, or group of correlated funds. These risks may be managed through defined controls over conflict of interest , restrictions on allocation of funds, and set exposure limits for strategies. Many investment funds use leverage , the practice of borrowing money, trading on margin , or using derivatives to obtain market exposure in excess of that provided by investors' capital. Although leverage can increase potential returns,

1111-446: A fund manager "drifting" away from an area of specific expertise, manager risk factors include valuation risk , capacity risk, concentration risk , and leverage risk . Valuation risk refers to the concern that the net asset value (NAV) of investments may be inaccurate; capacity risk can arise from placing too much money into one particular strategy, which may lead to fund performance deterioration; and concentration risk may arise if

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1212-443: A fund that failed due to its inability to post collateral to cover adverse market fluctuations. Statistical arbitrage is also subject to model weakness as well as stock- or security-specific risk. The statistical relationship on which the model is based may be spurious, or may break down due to changes in the distribution of returns on the underlying assets. Factors, which the model may not be aware of having exposure to, could become

1313-466: A good year. Earnings at the very top are higher than in any other sector of the financial industry, and collectively the top 25 hedge fund managers regularly earn more than all 500 of the chief executives in the S&;P 500 . Most hedge fund managers are remunerated much less, however, and if performance fees are not earned then small managers at least are unlikely to be paid significant amounts. In 2011,

1414-403: A greater appetite for risk , with the intention of maximizing returns, subject to the risk tolerance of investors and the fund manager. Managers will have an additional incentive to increase risk oversight when their own capital is invested in the fund. Hedge fund management firms typically charge their funds both a management fee and a performance fee . Management fees are calculated as

1515-604: A greater exposure to the fluctuations of the overall market than do market neutral strategies. Directional hedge fund strategies include US and international long/short equity hedge funds, where long equity positions are hedged with short sales of equities or equity index options . Within directional strategies, there are a number of sub-strategies. " Emerging markets " funds focus on emerging markets such as China and India, whereas "sector funds" specialize in specific areas including technology, healthcare, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, energy, and basic materials. Funds using

1616-439: A large amount of flexibility (due to their ability to use leverage to take large positions in diverse investments in multiple markets), the timing of the implementation of the strategies is important in order to generate attractive, risk-adjusted returns. Global macro is often categorized as a directional investment strategy. Global macro strategies can be divided into discretionary and systematic approaches. Discretionary trading

1717-445: A management fee of 2% on total assets and a 20% fee on realized gains. In the 1970s, hedge funds specialized in a single strategy with most fund managers following the long/short equity model. Many hedge funds closed during the recession of 1969–1970 and the 1973–1974 stock market crash due to heavy losses. They received renewed attention in the late 1980s. During the 1990s, the number of hedge funds increased significantly with

1818-400: A manager is only rewarded if the fund generates returns in excess of the returns that the investor would have received if they had invested their money elsewhere. Some hedge funds charge a redemption fee (or withdrawal fee) for early withdrawals during a specified period of time (typically a year), or when withdrawals exceed a predetermined percentage of the original investment. The purpose of

1919-422: A manager will sometimes close a fund that has suffered serious losses and start a new fund, rather than attempt to recover the losses over a number of years without a performance fee. Some performance fees include a " hurdle ", so that a fee is only paid on the fund's performance in excess of a benchmark rate ( e.g. , LIBOR ) or a fixed percentage. The hurdle is usually tied to a benchmark rate such as Libor or

2020-487: A measure of the appropriate expected rate of return. Due to the fact that the overall rate of return on the firm is weighted rate of return on its debt and its equity, the market-beta of the overall unlevered firm is the weighted average of the firm's debt beta (often close to 0) and its levered equity beta. In fund management, adjusting for exposure to the market separates out the component that fund managers should have received given that they had their specific exposure to

2121-493: A multi-factor approach to StatArb. Because of the large number of stocks involved, the high portfolio turnover and the fairly small size of the effects one is trying to capture, the strategy is often implemented in an automated fashion and great attention is placed on reducing trading costs. Statistical arbitrage has become a major force at both hedge funds and investment banks. Many bank proprietary operations now center to varying degrees around statistical arbitrage trading. As

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2222-400: A percentage of the fund's net asset value and typically range from 1% to 4% per annum, with 2% being standard. They are usually expressed as an annual percentage, but calculated and paid monthly or quarterly. Management fees for hedge funds are designed to cover the operating costs of the manager, whereas the performance fee provides the manager's profits. However, due to economies of scale

2323-488: A portfolio of a hundred or more stocks—some long, some short—that are carefully matched by sector and region to eliminate exposure to beta and other risk factors. Portfolio construction is automated and consists of two phases. In the first or "scoring" phase, each stock in the market is assigned a numeric score or rank that reflects its desirability; high scores indicate stocks that should be held long and low scores indicate stocks that are candidates for shorting. The details of

2424-665: A position based on the predicted movement of the security or securities in question. Large institutional investors such as hedge funds are more likely to pursue event-driven investing strategies than traditional equity investors because they have the expertise and resources to analyze corporate transactional events for investment opportunities. Corporate transactional events generally fit into three categories: distressed securities , risk arbitrage , and special situations . Distressed securities include such events as restructurings, recapitalizations , and bankruptcies . A distressed securities investment strategy involves investing in

2525-410: A single strategy or multiple strategies for flexibility, risk management , or diversification. The hedge fund's prospectus , also known as an offering memorandum , offers potential investors information about key aspects of the fund, including the fund's investment strategy, investment type, and leverage limit. The elements contributing to a hedge fund strategy include the hedge fund's approach to

2626-678: A specific fund to a holder of the mutual fund benchmark portfolio, rather than the risk of adding the fund to a portfolio of the market. Utility stocks commonly show up as examples of low beta. These have some similarity to bonds, in that they tend to pay consistent dividends, and their prospects are not strongly dependent on economic cycles. They are still stocks, so the market price will be affected by overall stock market trends, even if this does not make sense. Foreign stocks may provide some diversification. World benchmarks such as S&P Global 100 have slightly lower betas than comparable US-only benchmarks such as S&P 100 . However, this effect

2727-627: A state of maturity that is consolidating around the larger, more established firms such as Citadel, Elliot, Millennium, Bridgewater, and others. The rate of new fund start ups is now outpaced by fund closings. In July 2017, hedge funds recorded their eighth consecutive monthly gain in returns with assets under management rising to a record $ 3.1 trillion. Hedge fund strategies are generally classified among four major categories: global macro , directional, event-driven , and relative value ( arbitrage ). Strategies within these categories each entail characteristic risk and return profiles. A fund may employ

2828-401: A strategy based on predicting the final approval of new pharmaceutical drugs ; and legal catalyst strategy, which specializes in companies involved in major lawsuits. Relative value arbitrage strategies take advantage of relative discrepancies in price between securities. The price discrepancy can occur due to mispricing of securities compared to related securities, the underlying security or

2929-496: A substantial portion of the asset management industry, with assets totaling around $ 3.8 trillion as of 2021. The word "hedge", meaning a line of bushes around the perimeter of a field, has long been used as a metaphor for placing limits on risk. Early hedge funds sought to hedge specific investments against general market fluctuations by shorting other, similar assets. Nowadays, however, many different investment strategies are used, many of which do not "hedge" risk. During

3030-411: A trading strategy, statistical arbitrage is a heavily quantitative and computational approach to securities trading. It involves data mining and statistical methods, as well as the use of automated trading systems. Historically, StatArb evolved out of the simpler pairs trade strategy, in which stocks are put into pairs by fundamental or market-based similarities. When one stock in a pair outperforms

3131-403: Is This suggests that an asset with β {\displaystyle \beta } greater than 1 increases the portfolio variance, while an asset with β {\displaystyle \beta } less than 1 decreases it if added in a small amount. Market-beta can be weighted, averaged, added, etc. That is, if a portfolio consists of 80% asset A and 20% asset B, then

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3232-512: Is an unbiased error term whose squared error should be minimized. The coefficient α i {\displaystyle \alpha _{i}} is often referred to as the alpha . The ordinary least squares solution is: where Cov {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cov} } and Var {\displaystyle \operatorname {Var} } are the covariance and variance operators. Betas with respect to different market indexes are not comparable. By using

3333-602: Is carried out by investment managers who identify and select investments, whereas systematic trading is based on mathematical models and executed by software with limited human involvement beyond the programming and updating of the software. These strategies can also be divided into trend or counter-trend approaches depending on whether the fund attempts to profit from following market trend (long or short-term) or attempts to anticipate and profit from reversals in trends. Within global macro strategies, there are further sub-strategies including "systematic diversified", in which

3434-666: Is common for hedge fund investment strategies to aim to achieve a positive return on investment regardless of whether markets are rising or falling (" absolute return "). Hedge funds can be considered risky investments; the expected returns of some hedge fund strategies are less volatile than those of retail funds with high exposure to stock markets because of the use of hedging techniques. Research in 2015 showed that hedge fund activism can have significant real effects on target firms, including improvements in productivity and efficient reallocation of corporate assets. Moreover, these interventions often lead to increased labor productivity, although

3535-490: Is defined by (and best obtained via) a linear regression of the rate of return r i , t {\displaystyle r_{i,t}} of asset i {\displaystyle i} on the rate of return r m , t {\displaystyle r_{m,t}} of the (typically value-weighted) stock-market index m {\displaystyle m} : where ε t {\displaystyle \varepsilon _{t}}

3636-404: Is difficult to explain unless there was a common risk factor. While the reasons are not yet fully understood, several published accounts blame the emergency liquidation of a fund that experienced capital withdrawals or margin calls . By closing out its positions quickly, the fund put pressure on the prices of the stocks it was long and short. Because other StatArb funds had similar positions, due to

3737-581: Is itself a risk factor, one that is relatively new and thus was not taken into account by the StatArb models. These events showed that StatArb has developed to a point where it is a significant factor in the marketplace, that existing funds have similar positions and are in effect competing for the same returns. Simulations of simple StatArb strategies by Khandani and Lo show that the returns to such strategies have been reduced considerably from 1998 to 2007, presumably because of competition. It has also been argued that

3838-601: Is more volatile than the market. In practice, few stocks have negative betas (tending to go up when the market goes down). Most stocks have betas between 0 and 3. Most fixed income instruments and commodities tend to have low or zero betas; call options tend to have high betas; and put options and short positions and some inverse ETFs tend to have negative betas. The market beta β i {\displaystyle \beta _{i}} of an asset i {\displaystyle i} , observed on t {\displaystyle t} occasions,

3939-414: Is necessary. On a stock-specific level, there is risk of M&A activity or even default for an individual name. Such an event would immediately invalidate the significance of any historical relationship assumed from empirical statistical analysis of the past data. During July and August 2007, a number of StatArb (and other Quant type) hedge funds experienced significant losses at the same time, which

4040-401: Is not as good as it used to be; the various markets are now fairly correlated, especially the US and Western Europe. Derivatives are examples of non-linear assets. Whereas Beta relies on a linear model, an out of the money option will have a distinctly non-linear payoff. In these cases, then, the change in price of an option relative to the change in the price of its underlying asset

4141-426: Is not constant. (True also - but here, far less pronounced - for volatility , time to expiration , and other factors .) Thus "beta" here, calculated traditionally, would vary constantly as the price of the underlying changed. Accommodating this, mathematical finance defines a specific volatility beta . Here, analogous to the above, this beta represents the covariance between the derivative's return and changes in

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4242-445: Is not necessarily indicative of dependence. As more competitors enter the market, and funds diversify their trades across more platforms than StatArb, a point can be made that there should be no reason to expect the platform models to behave anything like each other. Their statistical models could be entirely independent. Statistical arbitrage faces different regulatory situations in different countries or markets. In many countries where

4343-550: Is reduced but cannot be eliminated. According to a report by the Hennessee Group, hedge funds were approximately one-third less volatile than the S&P 500 between 1993 and 2010. Investors in hedge funds are, in most countries, required to be qualified investors who are assumed to be aware of the investment risks , and accept these risks because of the potential returns relative to those risks. Fund managers may employ extensive risk management strategies in order to protect

4444-479: The 1990s stock market rise , the aligned-interest compensation structure ( i.e. , common financial interests), and the promise of above average returns as likely causes. Over the next decade, hedge fund strategies expanded to include credit arbitrage, distressed debt , fixed income , quantitative , and multi-strategy. US institutional investors , such as pension and endowment funds , began allocating greater portions of their portfolios to hedge funds. During

4545-454: The capital asset pricing model (CAPM). Practitioners tend to prefer to work with the S&P 500 due to its easy in-time availability and availability to hedge with stock index futures. In the idealized CAPM, beta risk is the only kind of risk for which investors should receive an expected return higher than the risk-free rate of interest . When used within the context of the CAPM, beta becomes

4646-408: The net asset value ("NAV") by the administrator, including the pricing of securities at current market value and calculation of the fund's income and expense accruals, is a core administrator task, because it is the price at which investors buy and sell shares in the fund. The accurate and timely calculation of NAV by the administrator is vital. The case of Anwar v. Fairfield Greenwich (SDNY 2015)

4747-410: The stock market as a whole. Beta can be used to indicate the contribution of an individual asset to the market risk of a portfolio when it is added in small quantity. It refers to an asset's non-diversifiable risk , systematic risk , or market risk. Beta is not a measure of idiosyncratic risk . Beta is the hedge ratio of an investment with respect to the stock market. For example, to hedge out

4848-703: The 1,226 people on the Forbes World's Billionaires List for 2012, 36 of the financiers listed "derived significant chunks" of their wealth from hedge fund management. Among the richest 1,000 people in the United Kingdom, 54 were hedge fund managers, according to the Sunday Times Rich List for 2012. A portfolio manager risks losing his past compensation if he or she engages in insider trading . In Morgan Stanley v. Skowron , 989 F. Supp. 2d 356 (S.D.N.Y. 2013), applying New York's faithless servant doctrine,

4949-635: The US bull market of the 1920s, there were numerous private investment vehicles available to wealthy investors. Of that period, the best known today is the Graham-Newman Partnership, founded by Benjamin Graham and his long-time business partner Jerry Newman. This was cited by Warren Buffett in a 2006 letter to the Museum of American Finance as an early hedge fund, and based on other comments from Buffett, Janet Tavakoli deems Graham's investment firm

5050-492: The United States and Europe following the financial crisis of 2007–2008 with the intention of increasing government oversight of hedge funds and eliminating certain regulatory gaps. While most modern hedge funds are able to employ a wide variety of financial instruments and risk management techniques, they can be very different from each other with respect to their strategies, risks, volatility and expected return profile. It

5151-547: The United States collectively held $ 1.335 trillion. In April 2012, the hedge fund industry reached a record high of US$ 2.13 trillion total assets under management. In the middle of the 2010s, the hedge fund industry experienced a general decline in the "old guard" fund managers. Dan Loeb called it a "hedge fund killing field" due to the classic long/short falling out of favor because of unprecedented easing by central banks . The US stock market correlation became untenable to short sellers . The hedge fund industry today has reached

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5252-426: The benefits may not fully accrue to workers in terms of increased wages or work hours. A hedge fund usually pays its investment manager a management fee (typically, 2% per annum of the net asset value of the fund) and a performance fee (typically, 20% of the increase in the fund's net asset value during a year). Hedge funds have existed for many decades and have become increasingly popular. They have now grown to be

5353-451: The best forecast of the true prevailing beta most indicative of the most likely future beta realization and not in the historical market-beta . Despite these problems, a historical beta estimator remains an obvious benchmark predictor. It is obtained as the slope of the fitted line from the linear least-squares estimator. The OLS regression can be estimated on 1–5 years worth of daily, weekly or monthly stock returns. The choice depends on

5454-421: The beta of the portfolio is 80% times the beta of asset A and 20% times the beta of asset B. In practice, the choice of index makes relatively little difference in the market betas of individual assets, because broad value-weighted market indexes tend to move closely together. Academics tend to prefer to work with a value-weighted market portfolio due to its attractive aggregation properties and its close link with

5555-479: The bonds or loans of companies facing bankruptcy or severe financial distress, when these bonds or loans are being traded at a discount to their value. Hedge fund managers pursuing the distressed debt investment strategy aim to capitalize on depressed bond prices. Hedge funds purchasing distressed debt may prevent those companies from going bankrupt, as such an acquisition deters foreclosure by banks. While event-driven investing, in general, tends to thrive during

5656-541: The court held that a hedge fund's portfolio manager engaging in insider trading in violation of his company's code of conduct, which also required him to report his misconduct, must repay his employer the full $ 31 million his employer paid him as compensation during his period of faithlessness. The court called the insider trading the "ultimate abuse of a portfolio manager's position". The judge also wrote: "In addition to exposing Morgan Stanley to government investigations and direct financial losses, Skowron's behavior damaged

5757-609: The effect of market swings whereas directional funds utilize trends and inconsistencies in the market and have greater exposure to the market's fluctuations. Hedge funds using a global macro investing strategy take large positions in share, bond, or currency markets in anticipation of global macroeconomic events in order to generate a risk-adjusted return . Global macro fund managers use macroeconomic ("big picture") analysis based on global market events and trends to identify opportunities for investment that would profit from anticipated price movements. While global macro strategies have

5858-528: The events during August 2007 were linked to reduction of liquidity, possibly due to risk reduction by high-frequency market makers during that time. It is a noteworthy point of contention, that the common reduction in portfolio value could also be attributed to a causal mechanism. The 2007-2008 financial crisis also occurred at this time. Many, if not the vast majority, of investors of any form, booked losses during this one year time frame. The association of observed losses at hedge funds using statistical arbitrage

5959-431: The fee is to discourage short-term investing, reduce turnover, and deter withdrawals after periods of poor performance. Unlike management fees and performance fees, redemption fees are usually kept by the fund and redistributed to all investors. Hedge fund management firms are often owned by their portfolio managers , who are therefore entitled to any profits that the business makes. As management fees are intended to cover

6060-540: The firm's operating costs, performance fees (and any excess management fees) are generally distributed to the firm's owners as profits. Funds do not tend to report compensation, and so published lists of the amounts earned by top managers tend to be estimates based on factors such as the fees charged by their funds and the capital they are thought to have invested in them. Many managers have accumulated large stakes in their own funds and so top hedge fund managers can earn extraordinary amounts of money, perhaps up to $ 4 billion in

6161-736: The firm's reputation, a valuable corporate asset." A hedge fund is an investment vehicle that is most often structured as an offshore corporation , limited partnership , or limited liability company . The fund is managed by an investment manager in the form of an organization or company that is legally and financially distinct from the hedge fund and its portfolio of assets . Many investment managers utilize service providers for operational support. Service providers include prime brokers, banks, administrators, distributors, and accounting firms. Prime brokers clear trades and provide leverage and short-term financing . They are usually divisions of large investment banks. The prime broker acts as

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6262-600: The first decade of the 21st century, hedge funds gained popularity worldwide, and, by 2008, the worldwide hedge fund industry held an estimated US$ 1.93 trillion in assets under management (AUM). However, the financial crisis of 2007–2008 caused many hedge funds to restrict investor withdrawals and their popularity and AUM totals declined. AUM totals rebounded and in April 2011 were estimated at almost $ 2 trillion. As of February 2011 , 61% of worldwide investment in hedge funds came from institutional sources. In June 2011,

6363-471: The first hedge fund. The sociologist Alfred W. Jones is credited with coining the phrase " hedged fund" and is credited with creating the first hedge fund structure in 1949. Jones referred to his fund as being "hedged", a term then commonly used on Wall Street to describe the management of investment risk due to changes in the financial markets . Jones also developed the popular 2-and-20 structure of hedge funds, in which hedge funds charged investors

6464-585: The four main categories, there are several strategies that do not entirely fit into these categories. For an investor who already holds large quantities of equities and bonds, investment in hedge funds may provide diversification and reduce the overall portfolio risk. Managers of hedge funds often aim to produce returns that are relatively uncorrelated with market indices and are consistent with investors' desired level of risk. While hedging can reduce some risks of an investment it usually increases others, such as operational risk and model risk , so overall risk

6565-645: The fund and investors. According to the Financial Times , "big hedge funds have some of the most sophisticated and exacting risk management practices anywhere in asset management." Hedge fund managers that hold a large number of investment positions for short periods are likely to have a particularly comprehensive risk management system in place, and it has become usual for funds to have independent risk officers who assess and manage risks but are not otherwise involved in trading. A variety of different measurement techniques and models are used to estimate risk according to

6666-654: The fund trades in diversified markets, or sector specialists such as "systematic currency", in which the fund trades in foreign exchange markets or any other sector specialisation. Other sub-strategies include those employed by commodity trading advisors (CTAs), where the fund trades in futures (or options ) in commodity markets or in swaps. This is also known as a "managed future fund". CTAs trade in commodities (such as gold) and financial instruments, including stock indices . They also take both long and short positions, allowing them to make profit in both market upswings and downswings. Most global macro managers tends to be

6767-436: The fund's net asset value , whereas private-equity funds generally invest in illiquid assets and return capital only after a number of years. Other than a fund's regulatory status, there are no formal or fixed definitions of fund types, and so there are different views of what can constitute a "hedge fund". Although hedge funds are not subject to the many restrictions applicable to regulated funds, regulations were passed in

6868-464: The fund's leverage, liquidity, and investment strategy. Non-normality of returns, volatility clustering and trends are not always accounted for by conventional risk measurement methodologies and so in addition to value at risk and similar measurements, funds may use integrated measures such as drawdowns . In addition to assessing the market-related risks that may arise from an investment, investors commonly employ operational due diligence to assess

6969-418: The hedge fund management firms with the greatest AUM were Bridgewater Associates (US$ 58.9 billion), Man Group (US$ 39.2 billion), Paulson & Co. (US$ 35.1 billion), Brevan Howard (US$ 31 billion), and Och-Ziff (US$ 29.4 billion). Bridgewater Associates had $ 70 billion in assets under management as of March 2012 . At the end of that year, the 241 largest hedge fund firms in

7070-402: The hedge fund manager must identify an upcoming event that will increase or decrease the value of the company's equity and equity-related instruments. Other event-driven strategies include credit arbitrage strategies, which focus on corporate fixed income securities; an activist strategy, where the fund takes large positions in companies and uses the ownership to participate in the management;

7171-460: The instant prevailing market-beta. When long-term market-betas are required, further regression toward the mean over long horizons should be considered. Hedge fund A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that holds liquid assets and that makes use of complex trading and risk management techniques to improve investment performance and insulate returns from market risk . Among these portfolio techniques are short selling and

7272-539: The management fee from larger funds can generate a significant part of a manager's profits, and as a result some fees have been criticized by some public pension funds, such as CalPERS , for being too high. The performance fee is typically 20% of the fund's profits during any year, though performance fees range between 10% and 50%. Performance fees are intended to provide an incentive for a manager to generate profits. Performance fees have been criticized by Warren Buffett , who believes that because hedge funds share only

7373-456: The market overall. Hedge fund managers can use various types of analysis to identify price discrepancies in securities, including mathematical, technical , or fundamental techniques. Relative value is often used as a synonym for market neutral , as strategies in this category typically have very little or no directional market exposure to the market as a whole. Other relative value sub-strategies include: In addition to those strategies within

7474-436: The market stabilization mechanisms (e.g. daily limit) set heavy obstacles when either individual investors or institutional investors try to implement the trading strategy implied by statistical arbitrage theory. Beta (finance) In finance , the beta ( β or market beta or beta coefficient ) is a statistic that measures the expected increase or decrease of an individual stock price in proportion to movements of

7575-592: The market, the particular instrument use, the market sector the fund specializes in ( e.g. , healthcare), the method used to select investments, and the amount of diversification within the fund. There are a variety of market approaches to different asset classes , including equity , fixed income , commodity , and currency . Instruments used include equities, fixed income, futures , options , and swaps . Strategies can be divided into those in which investments can be selected by managers, known as "discretionary/qualitative", or those in which investments are selected using

7676-410: The market-risk of a stock with a market beta of 2.0, an investor would short $ 2,000 in the stock market for every $ 1,000 invested in the stock. Thus insured, movements of the overall stock market no longer influence the combined position on average. Beta measures the contribution of an individual investment to the risk of the market portfolio that was not reduced by diversification . It does not measure

7777-510: The market. For example, if the stock market went up by 20% in a given year, and a manager had a portfolio with a market-beta of 2.0, this portfolio should have returned 40% in the absence of specific stock picking skills. This is measured by the alpha in the market-model, holding beta constant. Occasionally, other betas than market-betas are used. The arbitrage pricing theory (APT) has multiple factors in its model and thus requires multiple betas. (The CAPM has only one risk factor , namely

7878-413: The one-year Treasury bill rate plus a spread. A "soft" hurdle means the performance fee is calculated on all the fund's returns if the hurdle rate is cleared. A "hard" hurdle is calculated only on returns above the hurdle rate. By example the manager sets a hurdle rate equal to 5%, and the fund return 15%, incentive fees would only apply to the 10% above the hurdle rate. A hurdle is intended to ensure that

7979-499: The opportunity for larger gains is weighed against the possibility of greater losses. Hedge funds employing leverage are likely to engage in extensive risk management practices. In comparison with investment banks , hedge fund leverage is relatively low; according to a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, the average leverage for investment banks is 14.2, compared to between 1.5 and 2.5 for hedge funds. Some types of funds, including hedge funds, are perceived as having

8080-576: The other, the under performing stock is bought long and the outperforming stock is sold short with the expectation that under performing stock will climb towards its outperforming partner. Mathematically speaking, the strategy is to find a pair of stocks with high correlation , cointegration , or other common factor characteristics. Various statistical tools have been used in the context of pairs trading ranging from simple distance-based approaches to more complex tools such as cointegration and copula concepts. StatArb considers not pairs of stocks but

8181-407: The overall market, and thus works only with the plain beta.) For example, a beta with respect to oil price changes would sometimes be called an "oil-beta" rather than "market-beta" to clarify the difference. Betas commonly quoted in mutual fund analyses often measure the exposure to a specific fund benchmark, rather than to the overall stock market. Such a beta would measure the risk from adding

8282-481: The possibility that the merger or acquisition will not go ahead as planned; hedge fund managers will use research and analysis to determine if the event will take place. Special situations are events that impact the value of a company's stock, including the restructuring of a company or corporate transactions including spin-offs , share buy backs , security issuance/repurchase, asset sales, or other catalyst-oriented situations. To take advantage of special situations

8383-491: The profits and not the losses, such fees create an incentive for high-risk investment management. Performance fee rates have fallen since the start of the credit crunch . Almost all hedge fund performance fees include a " high water mark " (or "loss carryforward provision"), which means that the performance fee only applies to net profits ( i.e. , profits after losses in previous years have been recovered). This prevents managers from receiving fees for volatile performance, though

8484-423: The relationship between standard deviation and variance , σ ≡ Var ⁡ ( r ) {\displaystyle \sigma \equiv {\sqrt {\operatorname {Var} (r)}}} and the definition of correlation ρ a , b ≡ Cov ⁡ ( r a , r b ) Var ⁡ ( r

8585-426: The respective volatilities . This equation shows that the idiosyncratic risk ( σ i {\displaystyle \sigma _{i}} ) is related to but often very different to market beta. If the idiosyncratic risk is 0 (i.e., the stock returns do not move), so is the market-beta. The reverse is not the case: A coin toss bet has a zero beta but not zero risk. Attempts have been made to estimate

8686-416: The risk that error or fraud at a hedge fund might result in a loss to the investor. Considerations will include the organization and management of operations at the hedge fund manager, whether the investment strategy is likely to be sustainable, and the fund's ability to develop as a company. Since hedge funds are private entities and have few public disclosure requirements, this is sometimes perceived as

8787-439: The risk when an investment is held on a stand-alone basis. The beta of an asset is compared to the market as a whole, usually the S&P 500 . By definition, the value-weighted average of all market-betas of all investable assets with respect to the value-weighted market index is 1. If an asset has a beta above 1, it indicates that its return moves more than 1-to-1 with the return of the market-portfolio, on average; that is, it

8888-454: The same types of risk as other investment classes, including liquidity risk and manager risk. Liquidity refers to the degree to which an asset can be bought and sold or converted to cash; similar to private-equity funds, hedge funds employ a lock-up period during which an investor cannot remove money. Manager risk refers to those risks which arise from the management of funds. As well as specific risks such as style drift , which refers to

8989-648: The scoring formula vary and are highly proprietary, but, generally (as in pairs trading), they involve a short term mean reversion principle so that, e.g., stocks that have done unusually well in the past week receive low scores and stocks that have underperformed receive high scores. In the second or "risk reduction" phase, the stocks are combined into a portfolio in carefully matched proportions so as to eliminate, or at least greatly reduce, market and factor risk. This phase often uses commercially available risk models like MSCI/Barra , APT, Northfield, Risk Infotech, and Axioma to constrain or eliminate various risk factors. Over

9090-430: The set of possible stock return realizations. The true market-beta is essentially the average outcome if infinitely many draws could be observed. On average, the best forecast of the realized market-beta is also the best forecast of the true market-beta. Estimators of market-beta have to wrestle with two important problems. First, the underlying market betas are known to move over time. Second, investors are interested in

9191-414: The significant drivers of price action in the markets, and the inverse applies also. The existence of the investment based upon model itself may change the underlying relationship, particularly if enough entrants invest with similar principles. The exploitation of arbitrage opportunities themselves increases the efficiency of the market, thereby reducing the scope for arbitrage, so continual updating of models

9292-426: The similarity of their alpha models and risk-reduction models, the other funds experienced adverse returns. One of the versions of the events describes how Morgan Stanley 's highly successful StatArb fund, PDT , decided to reduce its positions in response to stresses in other parts of the firm, and how this contributed to several days of hectic trading. In a sense, the fact of a stock being heavily involved in StatArb

9393-413: The terms in δ 2 {\displaystyle \delta ^{2}} can be ignored, Using the definition of β i = Cov ⁡ ( r m , r i ) / Var ⁡ ( r m ) , {\displaystyle \beta _{i}=\operatorname {Cov} (r_{m},r_{i})/\operatorname {Var} (r_{m}),} this

9494-449: The three ingredient components separately, but this has not led to better estimates of market-betas. Suppose an investor has all his money in the market m {\displaystyle m} and wishes to move a small amount into asset class i {\displaystyle i} . The new portfolio is defined by The variance can be computed as For small values of δ {\displaystyle \delta } ,

9595-490: The top manager earned $ 3 billion, the tenth earned $ 210 million, and the 30th earned $ 80 million. In 2011, the average earnings for the 25 highest-compensated hedge fund managers in the United States was $ 576 million while the mean total compensation for all hedge fund investment professionals was $ 690,786 and the median was $ 312,329. The same figures for hedge fund CEOs were $ 1,037,151 and $ 600,000, and for chief investment officers were $ 1,039,974 and $ 300,000, respectively. Of

9696-410: The trade off between accuracy of beta measurement (longer periodic measurement times and more years give more accurate results) and historic firm beta changes over time (for example, due to changing sales products or clients). Other beta estimators reflect the tendency of betas (like rates of return) for regression toward the mean , induced not only by measurement error but also by underlying changes in

9797-417: The trading security or derivatives are not fully developed, investors find it infeasible or unprofitable to implement statistical arbitrage in local markets. In China, quantitative investment including statistical arbitrage is not the mainstream approach to investment. A set of market conditions restricts the trading behavior of funds and other financial institutions. The restriction on short selling as well as

9898-670: The true beta and/or historical randomness. (Intuitively, one would not suggest a company with high return [e.g., a drug discovery] last year also to have as high a return next year.) Such estimators include the Blume/Bloomberg beta (used prominently on many financial websites), the Vasicek beta, the Scholes–Williams beta, the Dimson beta, and the Welch beta. These estimators attempt to uncover

9999-404: The underlying investment opportunity and risk are associated with an event. An event-driven investment strategy finds investment opportunities in corporate transactional events such as consolidations, acquisitions , recapitalizations , bankruptcies , and liquidations . Managers employing such a strategy capitalize on valuation inconsistencies in the market before or after such events, and take

10100-743: The use of leverage and derivative instruments . In the United States, financial regulations require that hedge funds be marketed only to institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals . Hedge funds are considered alternative investments . Their ability to use leverage and more complex investment techniques distinguishes them from regulated investment funds available to the retail market, commonly known as mutual funds and ETFs . They are also considered distinct from private equity funds and other similar closed-end funds as hedge funds generally invest in relatively liquid assets and are usually open-ended . This means they typically allow investors to invest and withdraw capital periodically based on

10201-419: The value of the underlying asset, with, additionally, a correction for instantaneous underlying changes. See volatility (finance) , volatility risk , Greeks (finance) § Vega . A true beta (which defines the true expected relationship between the rate of return on assets and the market) differs from a realized beta that is based on historical rates of returns and represents just one specific history out of

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