Asset Flows and Hedge Fund Crowding

The Virtuous and Vicious Cycles of Crowding Hedge Fund Crowding has cost investors $12 billion in the first 10 months of 2015, and $9 billion in the August-October 2015 rout. That is to say, tractable hedge funds’ long U.S. equity portfolios have suffered severely negative active return from security selection (alpha, or αReturn) this year, […]

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 […]

Hedge Fund Crowding Update – Q2 2015

Hedge funds share a few bets. These crowded systematic and idiosyncratic exposures are the main sources of the industry’s relative performance and of many firms’ returns. Two factors and three stocks were behind most herding of hedge fund long U.S. equity positions in Q2 2015. Investors should treat consensus ideas with caution: Crowded stocks are prone […]

Hedge Fund Crowding Update – Q1 2015

Hedge funds share a few systematic and idiosyncratic bets. These crowded bets are the main sources of the industry’s relative performance and of many individual funds’ returns. Three factors and four stocks were behind the majority of hedge fund long U.S. equity herding during Q1 2015. Investors should treat crowded ideas with caution: Crowded stocks are […]

Hedge Fund Mean Reversion

Our earlier articles explored hedge fund survivor (survivorship) bias and large fund survivor bias. These artifacts can nearly double nominal returns and overstate security selection (stock picking) performance by 80%. Due to these biases, future performance of the largest funds disappoints. The survivors and the largest funds have excellent past nominal performance, yet it is […]

Hedge Fund Crowding – Q4 2014

Hedge funds share a few systematic and idiosyncratic bets. These crowded bets are the main sources of the industry’s relative performance and of many individual funds’ returns. We survey risk factors and stocks responsible for the majority of hedge fund long U.S. equity herding during Q4 2014. Investors should treat crowded ideas with caution: Due to […]

Large Hedge Fund Survivor Bias

Why Size Isn’t Everything Hedge fund survivor bias is especially insidious for the largest firms. Large hedge fund survivor bias overstates expected performance of the biggest firms by nearly half and their risk adjusted return from security selection (stock picking) by 80%. It is impossible to predict the largest funds of the future, but one […]

Hedge Fund Survivor Bias

And The Flaws of Blind Fund-Following Strategies Numerous financial data and analytics vendors peddle hedge fund tracking strategies and content. Much of this data is hazardous to investors – Hedge fund survivor bias, a special case of the pervasive survivorship bias, is its key flaw. This artifact overstates nominal fund returns by a fifth and […]

Hedge Fund Crowding – Q3 2014

U.S. hedge funds share a few systematic and idiosyncratic long bets. These crowded bets are the main sources of aggregate hedge fund relative performance and of many individual funds’ returns. We survey the risk factors and the stocks behind most of Q3 2014 hedge fund herding. Investors should treat crowded ideas with caution: Due to the […]