We show that fund-specific return skewness is associated with managerial skill and future hedge fund performance. Specifically, skewness in fund returns reflects managerial skill in avoiding large drawdowns. Using a new measure of investment skill that accounts for this managerial ability, we...

Following large positive returns in 2008, Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) received increased attention and allocations from institutional investors. Subsequent performance has been below its long term average. This has occurred in a period following the largest financial crisis since the great...

During the recent financial crisis dedicated short bias (DSB) hedge funds exhibited extremely strong results while many other hedge fund strategies suffered badly. This study, prompted by this recent episode, investigates DSB hedge fund performance over an extended sample period, from January...

This study tests a large sample of UK equity returns from 1965-2007 for predictability. Returns are tested using the Lo and MacKinlay (1988) variance ratio test and the Chow and Denning (1993) multiple variance ratio tests. Overall, the results show strong signs of predictability. There is a...

This paper replicates the core underlying merger arbitrage strategy using daily data from the United Kingdom to generate three simulated merger arbitrage portfolio return series, for the period 2001 through to 2004. Past empirical evidence indicates that the merger arbitrage strategy generates...

There is a growing literature examining futures based trading strategies and the performance of Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs). In this paper, we test the validity of three key assumptions used in these studies. The validity of basing conclusions on analysis of synthetic rather than market...

We show that earning non-hedge fund income is associated with lower future hedge fund performance. Specifically, generating non-hedge fund income reflects weakened alignment between the incentives of hedge fund management firm owners and the interests of investors. Using a hand-collected...

In this paper we examine the characteristics of high frequency pairs trading using a sample of FTSE100 constituent stocks for the period January to December 2007. We show that the excess returns of the strategy are extremely sensitive both to transaction costs and speed of execution. When we...

Recent theoretical and empirical literature provides evidence of performance persistence in hedge funds. This study investigates whether persistence varies when a specialist FX manager launches a new fund in a different asset class. Previous research has found that when managers switch fund...

This paper specifies a simulated convertible bond arbitrage portfolio to characterise the risks in convertible bond arbitrage. For comparison the risk profile of convertible bond arbitrage hedge fund indices at both monthly and daily frequencies is also examined. Results indicate that...