This paper examines the timing ability of hedge funds covering various investment categories. We extend the Treynor-Mazuy (1966) and Henriksson-Merton (1981) market timing models to a multiple market framework and propose the concept of a focus market in which a fund trades most actively....

We examine net arbitrage trading (NAT) measured by the difference between quarterly abnormal hedge fund holdings and abnormal short interest. NAT strongly predicts stock returns in the cross section. Across 10 well-known stock anomalies, abnormal returns are realized only among stocks...

We examine commodity trading advisors (CTAs) to understand the causes and consequences of the financialization of commodity markets. We find that CTAs can hedge against stock market tail risk and that CTAs with better hedging properties attract more investor flows. Meanwhile, the aggregate CTA...

Building on the work of Barras, Scaillet and Wermers (BSW, 2010), we propose a modified approach to inferring performance for a cross-section of investment funds. Our model assumes that funds belong to groups of different abnormal performance or alpha. Using the structure of the probability...

This paper constructs and analyzes various measures of trading costs in US equity markets covering the period 1926–2015. These measures contain statistically and economically significant predictive signals for stock market returns and real economic activity. We decompose illiquidity proxies...

Using comprehensive quarterly data on hedge fund stock holdings, we study the role of hedge funds in the process of stock price formation. We find that hedge funds tend to hold undervalued stocks, and that both hedge fund ownership and their trades are positively related to the degree of stock...

This paper examines the use of derivatives and its relation with risk-taking in the hedge fund industry. From a large sample of hedge funds, 71% of the funds trade derivatives. After controlling for fund strategies and characteristics, derivatives users on average exhibit lower fund risks, such...

This paper examines whether self-described market timing hedge funds have the ability to time the U.S. equity market. We propose a new measure for timing return and volatility jointly that relates fund returns to the squared Sharpe ratio of the market portfolio. Using a sample of 221 market...

This paper provides a comprehensive examination of money flows in corporate bond funds which, though less researched, represent an important setting to study investor behavior. Based on a large sample of corporate bond funds over 1991–2014, we first show that flows are sensitive to both fund...

We develop an estimation approach based on a modified EM algorithm and a mixture of Normal distributions associated with skill groups to assess performance in hedge funds. By allowing luck to affect both skilled and unskilled funds, we estimate the number of skill groups, the fraction of funds...