Hedge fund strategies - a critical review

Introduction

Problem and objectives

Historically, there have been two competing investment theories. On the one hand there is the traditional efficient markets theory, which states that share prices fully reflect market information and therefore only temporary mispricing occurs. The traditional investments to buy and hold equity and bonds, which benefit principally from market direction is based on this theory. On the other hand the second theory argues that greater inefficiencies occur, and therefore opportunities can arise that enable investors to exploit mispriced securities without facing excessive levels of risk. This is the principal argument behind hedge fund investing.

In the Oxford dictionary, the term “hedge” is described as a way of protecting yourself against a loss, especially money. To achieve this goal, hedge funds use a wide range of different investment strategies. These strategies are partly very complex and therefore sometimes very difficult to comprehend for the investor. This fact contributes mainly to the negative image of hedge funds in the general public. But the truth is that as hedge funds exploit chances of winning which result from market imperfections, they actually support and improve the stability of the financial systems.

The hedge fund industry experienced a very strong growth in the last two decades and represents a good alternative investment opportunity to traditional asset classes. Therefore this paper aims to provide an overview of the numerous hedge fund strategies which are applied by the increasing number of hedge funds. This knowledge is needed as some specialists already expect that traditional mutual funds may not be able to avoid adopting respectively integrating some sort of hedge fund strategies to remain competitive with hedge funds.

Structure of the paper

This paper starts with a brief outline of the development in the history of hedge funds. Then the main characteristics of hedge funds and the differences to mutual funds will be explained. Concluding the basics’ part a description of the continuously growing hedge fund universe will be provided.