We reconsider the question of whether beta-centric hedge fund activity is predictive of superior performance. We construct a measure of overall beta activity of fund managers, Beta Activity, and find evidence that top beta active managers deliver superior long term out-of-sample performance...

Utilizing several models and regression analytics I compare factor attribution, strategies, and active management fees for 11,394 U.S. equity mutual funds and a matched sample of hedge funds from 1994 to 2010. There is modest evidence to support alpha delivery by mutual and hedge fund managers...

We investigate the determinants and performance implications of cash holdings for a large sample of actively-managed equity funds domiciled in the European Union (EU). In line with recent evidence from the US, we observe that cash holdings are strongly influenced by a fund's fee structure, past...

Recent research reveals that hedge fund returns exhibit a range of different,possibly non-linear pay-off patterns. It is difficult to qualify all these patternssimultaneously as being rational in a traditional framework for optimal financial decisionmaking. In this paper we present a simple...

We empirically analyse the returns of both Italian and round-trip open-end funds managed by Italian asset management companies (SGRs) in the period 2003-2008. Taking into account a modified version of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), we estimated a performance measure for each asset...

We provide novel evidence that hedge fund performance is persistent following weak hedge fund markets, but is not persistent following strong markets. Specifically, we construct two performance measures, DownsideReturns and UpsideReturns, conditioned on the level of overall hedge fund sector...

The performance of hedge funds is of interest to investors looking for ways of generating value over passive strategies, particularly in bad times. This study used the Hedge Index database with over 9500 hedge funds to analyse, in depth, the performance of ten major strategies, during and after...

We provide a solid framework in analyzing of what drives mutual fund performance in Chinese mutual fund industry, and show that fund performance is determined not only by efforts of fund manager, but also by fund investor behavior. Our empirical evidence shows that the total purchase and...

We discuss various performance measures of beta hedging and offer a new synthetic criterion that accounts for both risk-adjusted return and loss of the trading strategy. We consider two long portfolios hedged by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) that mimics the S&P 500 index. The first portfolio...

We propose a new approach for measuring mutual fund style and constructing characteristic-matched performance benchmarks that requires only portfolio holdings and two reference portfolios in each style dimension. The characteristic-matched performance benchmark literature typically follows a...