U.S. Smart Beta Crowding

Rapid asset flows into smart beta strategies have led to concerns about froth and a vigorous debate among systematic portfolio vendors. At the same time, few discussions of smart beta crowding are burdened by data on the aggregate risk of smart beta strategies. This article attempts to remedy this data vacuum. We survey the risk factors […]

Hedge Fund Clustering in Q4 2015

Crowding consists of large capital pools chasing related strategies. Within the hedge fund industry, long equity portfolios crowd into several clusters with similar systematic (factor) and idiosyncratic (residual) bets. This hedge fund clustering is the internal structure of crowding. We illustrate the large-scale hedge fund clustering and crowded bets within the largest cluster. Allocators and […]

Hedge Fund Energy Clustering: Q2 2015

Fund crowding consists of investment bets shared by groups of funds. Long hedge fund portfolios crowd into clusters with similar systematic (factor) and idiosyncratic (residual) bets. This clustering exists for the aggregate market and for individual sectors; it is the internal structure of hedge fund crowding. This piece surveys hedge fund clustering in the energy sector […]

Hedge Fund Clustering: Q2 2015 Update

Fund crowding consists of investment bets shared by groups of funds – large pools of capital chasing similar strategies. Within the hedge fund industry, long equity portfolios crowd into several clusters with similar systematic (factor) and idiosyncratic (residual) bets. This hedge fund clustering is the internal structure of hedge fund crowding. This piece illustrates the large-scale […]

Liquidation of Crowded Hedge Fund Energy Positions

The 2014-2015 energy carnage has been worse for crowded hedge fund energy positions than the global financial crisis. Past liquidations of crowded hedge fund bets were followed by rapid recoveries. Consequently, energy investors should survey the wreckage for opportunities. Crowded hedge fund oil and gas producers underperformed their sector peers by over 20% since 2013 as […]

Hedge Funds’ Best and Worst Sectors

Due to the congestion of their investor base, crowded hedge fund stocks are volatile and vulnerable to mass selling. The risk-adjusted performance of consensus bets tends to disappoint. In two past pieces we illustrated the toll of crowding on exploration and production as well as internet companies. We also reviewed two specific crowded bets: SanDisk and […]

Hedge Fund Clustering

Allocators who are unaware of hedge fund clustering and hedge fund crowding may be investing in an undifferentiated pool of consensus bets and paying high fees for closet indexing. Hedge fund crowding has internal structure – clusters of funds with shared systematic (factor) and idiosyncratic (residual) bets. We examine the largest hedge fund cluster in which: two […]

The Top U.S. Stock Pickers’ Industrials Performance

And Their Consensus Industrials Ideas in 2016 The challenges of identifying good investors and distilling their skill obscure the top stock pickers’ consistently strong performance. For instance, contrary to popular wisdom 2015 was a good year for stock picking. These results also generally apply to large market sub-segments such as the Industrials sector. In this […]

Performance of the Top U.S. Stock Pickers in 2016

And What They Owned at Year-end Though 2016 was a poor year for most institutional portfolio managers, it was a satisfactory year for the most skilled ones. Security selection returns of the top U.S. stock pickers in 2016 were positive. When hedged to match market risk, a consensus portfolio of the top intuitional U.S. stock […]