The paper provides an overview of the hedge fund industry, mainly from a financial stability and European angle. It is primarily based on an extensive analysis of information from the TASS database. On the positive side of the financial stability assessment, hedge funds have a role as providers...

In Boyson, Stahel, and Stulz (2010), we investigate whether hedge funds experience worst return contagion – that is, correlations in extremely poor returns that are over and above those expected from economic fundamentals. We find strong evidence of contagion among hedge funds using eight...

We decompose hedge fund tail risk into two components: Systematic Conditional Tail Risk (SCTR) arising predictably from equity market exposure, and Idiosyncratic Conditional Tail Risk (ICTR) arising from proprietary investment technology. Using option holdings data, we demonstrate that low-SCTR...

In this paper, we investigate how share restrictions affect hedge fund performance in crisis and non-crisis periods. Consistent with prior research, we find that more illiquid funds produce both higher returns and alphas in the pre-crisis period. Hence, funds generate a share illiquidity premium...

Hedge funds significantly reduced their equity holdings during the recent financial crisis. In 2008Q3-Q4, hedge funds sold about 29% of their aggregate portfolio. Redemptions and margin calls were the primary drivers of selloffs. Consistent with forced deleveraging, the selloffs took place in...

The hedge-fund industry has grown rapidly over the past two decades, offering investors unique investment opportunities that often reflect more complex risk exposures than those of traditional investments. In this article we present a selective review of the recent academic literature on hedge...

This multi-faceted analysis of institutional investment defines fiduciary finance institutions as the third pillar of the financial system, alongside banks and insurers. It documents the role played by investment funds and the money management industry during the recent financial crisis, and...

The US bond market had over $42.39 trillion of outstanding debt at the end of the third quarter of 2018, eclipsing the US stock market's approximately $30 trillion in market capitalization. The sheer size of the bond market provides ample opportunities, as well as risks, for institutional...

In this study, we examine how banks' stock price crash risk is affected by recourse uncertainty embedded in securitizations. By recourse uncertainty, we mean the difficulty for equity market participants to assess the true extent of risk transfer between securitizing banks and investors in...

This paper provides a critical appraisal of the March 2020 crisis in fixed income markets. We synthesize the main events, characterize what appears to be an emerging consensus on what caused the market breakdowns, summarize how the Fed’s actions contributed to its resolution, and discuss...