Oct
10
So Many Hedge Funds, So Little Alpha
ByScience fiction author William Gibson once observed that “The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.”
The same can said for alpha, or the ability of money managers to deliver market-beating returns.
Reports of high fees and underperformance have long dogged the alternative investment world, mainly private-equity, venture-capital and especially hedge funds. Last year, returns were negative versus slight gains in total returns for most benchmarks. This year, the Hedge Fund Research Index has gained half as much as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. (Whether the S&P 500 is the appropriate benchmark is a reasonable question, but it’s a debate for a different column.)…
So Many Hedge Funds, So Little Alpha
