We propose the bear beta, i.e. the sensitivity of hedge funds to a bear spread portfolio orthogonalized to the market, as a novel way of classifying funds as insurance buyers or sellers. We find that low bear beta funds (insurance sellers) outperform high bear beta funds (insurance buyers) by...

Classifying mandatory 13F stock-holding filings by manager type reveals that hedge fund strategies are mostly contrarian, while mutual fund strategies are largely trend following. The only institutional performers — the 2/3 of hedge fund managers that are contrarian — earn alpha of 2.4% per...

In the recent years the alternative asset class of hedge funds is widely discussed in financial literature. On the one hand this is caused by an increasing demand on these unregulated investments and on the other hand it is caused by a lack of transparency concerning their investment strategies...

One can consider the concept of market neutrality as having quot;breadthquot; and quot;depthquot;: quot;Breadthquot; reflects the number of market risks to which the hedge fund is neutral, while quot;depthquot; reflects the quot;completenessquot; of the neutrality of the fund to market risks. We...

A diverse set of measures allows investors to evaluate hedge fund portfolio managers' performance across different dimensions. The various measures quantify the effectiveness of security selection, account for investor flows, operating risk, and worst-case investment scenarios, net out benchmark...

In this article the authors present an applied portfolio factor model that illuminates the risk and return drivers of broad hedge fund strategies, from the opportunity-cost perspective of a portfolio investor who owns traditional assets. The authors demonstrate how to interpret and use key...

We study the out-of-sample predictability of the returns of pan-European harmonized mutual funds that apply hedge fund-like investment strategies (“Alternative UCITS”). Given these funds' higher liquidity, investors could exploit relevant information much easier than for hedge funds, and use...

This paper investigates empirically whether uncertainty about equity market volatility can explain hedge fund performance both in the cross section and over time. We measure uncertainty via volatility of aggregate volatility (VOV) and construct an investable version through returns on lookback...

This paper examines those mutual funds classified by Morningstar as “Multialternative” within their “Alternative” mutual fund classification. It follows an earlier paper, “Hedge Funds vs. Mutual Funds: An Examination of Equity Long/Short Funds,” which found that equity long/short...

Substantial losses suffered by several multi-billion dollar fixed income hedge funds have brought attention to risks involved in what was advertised as a leveraged municipal bond arbitrage strategy. The purported arbitrage strategy involved trades of municipal bonds, short-term notes, and...