<p>Hedge fund investing is a relatively new phenomenon in Sweden. The first Swedish hedge fund was started in 1996. This new financial sector has since showed a steady growth.</p><p>Due to the novelty of hedge fund phenomena, it is right to ask whether the investors are prepared for this kind of investments; how they choose their hedge funds investments and whether they have adequate knowl-edge in the field.</p><p>This thesis provides a mapping of the investors’ behavior regarding hedge fund investments. We have concluded that Swedish hedge fund investors have a limited basis of knowledge required to fully utilize hedge funds in their portfolios.</p>

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Economics, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Since the onset of the global financial crisis, there have been calls to regulate those parts of the financial system that were previously either unregulated or lightly regulated. These proposals are being put forward as part of an international drive to bring parts of the financial sector within the ambit of regulation, with the overarching aim of protecting investors from bearing the brunt of regulatory failures, as was experienced in the 2007/2008 global financial crisis. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of proposed regulation on the South African Hedge Fund industry.The focus of this research study was limited specifically to regulation in the Hedge Fund industry, although there are also proposals to strengthen regulations in other parts of the financial system. Qualitative research was conducted through a combination of face-to-face and telephonic interviews with stakeholders in the Hedge Fund industry.The research found that the proposed regulation would result in growth in the hedge fund industry by virtue of giving more credibility to the industry, thereby increasing the consumer base. The research also revealed that regulation would negatively impact the functioning of hedge funds and the quality of regulation in the industry was found to be good. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Thesis (MComm (Business Management))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / This study aims to look at the definition of the group of alternative investments commonly known as ‘hedge funds’, in order to better understand why regulatory bodies the world over are vehemently working on introducing new legislation and guidelines as a means of maintaining market security and integrity in order to ensure adequate investor protection. This study posits that the two most viable options available to regulatory bodies to ensure effective implementation of these changes are (i) to either further restrict access to hedge funds and thereby curb their ‘retailization’ and/or (ii) to introduce rigorous levels of disclosure on the part of hedge funds and their intermediaries. It is the objective of this study to establish that for either of these options to be attained, tangible improvement in both the quantity and quality of information disclosure from hedge funds and their intermediaries about their positions, strategies and exposures in a manner that would enable them to continue to provide the market efficiency-enhancing services that they currently offer. After introducing all the key issues that have motivated this resolve, the study looks at the current regulatory environment and the challenges facing regulators such as the varying degrees of banking freedom offered by different states and jurisdictions. Proposed changes to current legislation are also considered across several jurisdictions. The results from the local market field study set the platform for recommendations to be investigated in future studies in order to provide guidelines for the supervision of the hedge fund industry.

by Wong Fat Keung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-46). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1 --- Fund's return --- p.7 / Chapter 2.2 --- Value weighted Index of Hedge Funds --- p.8 / Chapter 2.3 --- Sharpe' s(1992) style analysis --- p.8 / Chapter 2.4 --- Econometric Procedure and Hypothesis Test --- p.11 / Chapter 3. --- DATA --- p.15 / Chapter 3.1 --- Market Data --- p.15 / Chapter 3.2 --- Hedge Fund Data --- p.16 / Chapter 3.3 --- Selecting Market Factor --- p.17 / Chapter 4. --- RESULTS --- p.19 / Chapter 4.1 --- Interest Rate Market --- p.19 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Did the hedge fund industry as a whole manipulate the interest rate market? --- p.19 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Did the Jaguar Fund NV manipulate the interest rate market? --- p.23 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Did the Quantum Fund NV manipulate the interest rate market? --- p.24 / Chapter 4.2 --- Hang Seng Index Future Market --- p.26 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Did the hedge fund industry as a whole manipulate the Hang Seng Index Future Market? --- p.26 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Did the Jaguar Fund NV manipulate the Hang Seng Index Future Market? --- p.29 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Did the Quantum Fund NV manipulate the Hang Seng Index Future Market? --- p.31 / Chapter 4.3 --- Hang Seng Index Market --- p.33 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Did the hedge funds as a whole manipulate the Hang Seng Index Market? --- p.33 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Did the Jaguar Fund NV manipulate the Hang Seng Index Market? --- p.34 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Did the Quantum Fund NV manipulate the Hang Seng Index Market? --- p.35 / Chapter 5. --- CONCLUSION --- p.37 / Chapter 5.1 --- Contribution --- p.41 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.44 / APPENDIX A TABLES --- p.47 / Table 1. Hedge Funds in value-weighted Index (vw38) --- p.47 / Table 2. Net Asset Value of Hedge Funds ( --- p.48 / Table 3. Hedge Fund Returns Around Crash --- p.49 / Table 4. Regression result of value-weighted index (vw38) --- p.50 / Table 5. Regression result of individual fund --- p.51 / Table 6. Correlation of return rates between different market segments from 11/1988 to 10/1999 --- p.52 / Table 7. Correlation of return rates between different market segments from 9/1997 to 10/1999 --- p.53 / Table 8. Regression result of 2-month HIBOR rate and dollar positions of hedge funds --- p.54 / Table 9. Regression result of 2-month HIBOR rate and dollar positions of Jaguar Fund NV --- p.55 / Table 10. Regression result of 2-month HIBOR rate and dollar positions of Quantum Fund NV --- p.56 / Table 11. Regression Result of Hang Seng Index Future Price against Dollar Positions of Hedge Funds --- p.57 / Table11b. Estimated Profit of Hedge Funds in the turmoil period in Hang Seng Index Future (in billions) --- p.58 / Table 12. Regression Result of Hang Seng Index Future Price against Dollar Positions of Jaguar Fund NV --- p.59 / Table 12b. Estimated Profit of Jaguar Fund NV in the turmoil periodin Hang Seng Index Future (in HK billions) --- p.60 / Table 13. Regression Result of Hang Seng Index Future Price against Dollar Positions of Quantum Fund NV --- p.61 / Table 13b. Estimated Profit of Quantum Fund NV in the turmoil periodin Hang Seng Index Future (in HK billions) --- p.62 / Table 14. Regression Result of Hang Seng Index Price against Dollar Positions of Hedge Funds --- p.63 / Table 15. Regression Result of Hang Seng Index Price against Dollar Positions of Jaguar Fund NV --- p.64 / Table 16. Regression Result of Hang Seng Index Price against Dollar Positions of Quantum Fund NV --- p.65 / APPENDIX B. FIGURES --- p.67 / Figure 1. Hong Kong Dollar Position of Hedge Funds --- p.67 / Figure 2. Hong Kong Dollar Position of Hedge Funds and 2m HIBOR Rate --- p.68 / Figure 3. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Jaguar Fund NV --- p.69 / Figure 4. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Jaguar Fund and 2m HIBOR Rate --- p.70 / Figure 5. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Quantum Fund NV --- p.71 / Figure 6. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Quantum Fund NV and 2m HIBOR Rate --- p.72 / Figure 7. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Hedge Funds in Hang Seng Index Future --- p.73 / Figure 8. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Hedge Funds in Hang Seng Index Future --- p.74 / Figure 7. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Hedge Funds in Hang Seng Index Future --- p.73 / Figure 8. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Hedge Funds in Hang Seng Index Future --- p.74 / Figure 9. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Jaguar Fund NV in Hang Seng Index Future --- p.75 / Figure 10. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Jaguar Fund NV in Hang Seng Index Future --- p.76 / Figure 11. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Quantum Fund NV in Hang Seng Index Future --- p.77 / Figure 13. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Hedge Funds in Hang Seng --- p.79 / Figure 17. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Quantum Fund NV in Hang Seng Index --- p.83 / Figure 18. Hong Kong Dollar Positions of Quantum Fund NV in Hang Seng Index --- p.84 / Figure 19. Net Profit of Hedge Funds in Hang Seng Index Future (in HK Billions) --- p.85 / Figure 20. Net Profit of Jaguar Fund NV in Hang Seng Index Future (in HK Billions) --- p.86

Dans l’environnement financier d’après crise, le business model des hedge funds semble remis en cause. La crise a en effet révélé leur incapacité à générer du rendement absolu puisqu’ils sont corrélés aux marchés financiers. La prétention d’en être décorrélée ne tient pas en effet, au début de l’année 20l0, la performance des hedge funds était parallèle à celle des actions, qui ont enregistré une hausse fin 2009. Aujourd’hui la tendance est d’avantage à la stagnation, à l’instar des hedge funds. Ils ont eu des difficultés à se rétablir et à dégager des profils exceptionnels, indépendamment de la conjoncture financière. C’est pourquoi l’évaluation et l’analyse de la performance représentent des éléments de recherche qu’on examine à travers cette thèse. Ce travail de recherche offre aux investisseurs, aux risk managers, ou encore aux autorités de régulation des marchés, une réponse à plusieurs interrogations, à savoir, l’attribution des performances absolues dans l’industrie hedge funds est-elle « vrai » ou il s ’agit d ’un phénomène de marketing ? Quelle est la relation entre les rendements des hedge funds et l’évolution des marchés financiers ? Comment expliquer la différence des rentabilités des stratégies hedge funds ? / In the post-crisis financial environment, the business model of hedge funds seems challenged. The crisis has revealed their inability to générérer absolute return since they are correlated with financial markets. Pretending to be uncorrelated does not in fact, at the beginning of 2010; the hedge fund performance was parallel to that of actions, which rose late 2009. Today the trend is of benefit to the stagnation, like hedge funds. They had difficulty réatblir and release profiles exceptional indépedemment financial conditions. This is why the evaluation and analysis of the performance represent elements of research that examines through this thesis. This research provides investors, risk managers, or regulators to market a response to several interrogations, namely, the assignment of absolute performance in the hedge fund industry is it "true" or it is a marketing phenomenon? What is the relationship between hedge fund returns and financial markets? How to explain the difference in returns of hedge fund strategies?

Cette thèse vise à analyser les aspects juridiques du rôle joué par les acteurs ayant une stratégie actionariale de court-terme (hedge funds,...) dans le cadre des offres publiques d'acquisition. Outre l'identification de ces acteurs et la description des méthodes employées, il s'agit aussi de s'interroger sur les moyens à disposition de la société cible pour se défendre et de se demander si des évolutions législatives ne seraient pas nécessaires. / The purpose of the Phd is to analyze questions raised by short-termism in takevoer bids. As a matter of fact, some shareholders only have short-terme strategies (such as Hedge funds,...) and takeover bids provide some fantastic arbitration opportunities. First, one should clearly identify these actors. Products which might be used in such situation will also have to be studied. Second, one should analyze which defence could provide the target. Third, a study of the opportunity or repealing or amending french legislation on these issues will be done.

Ce travail de thèse s'intéresse à la contribution des investisseurs sophistiqués de type hedge funds à la dynamique des marchés financiers. Considérant qu'ils sont les acteurs fondamentaux de la révélation des prix et de la liquidité des marchés, tant du point de vue du modèle standard que des critiques comportementalistes, on propose une évaluation des interdépendances dynamiques entre stratégies de gestion alternative et marchés financiers. Les trois premiers chapitres proposent, aumoyen d'approches économétriques originales, la mise en perspective des stratégies de hedge funds avec la dynamique des marchés à travers l'étude des rendements, de la volatilité et des co-volatilités. S'appuyant sur un large panel de résultats, l'étude révèle les nombreuses causalités croisées entre fonds et marchés, offrant à la finance comportementale des éléments de preuves empiriques des interactions qu'elle envisage au regard des excès de volatilité ou de la contagion financière. Riche de ces enseignements, le dernier chapitre propose enfin un retour aux modèles théoriques d'équilibres de marché pour proposer un portrait contrasté de la spéculation rationnelle dans sa relation à l'efficience des marchés. / This PH.D thesis focuses on the contribution of sophisticated investors, i.e. hedge funds, in the dynamics of financial markets. Considering that they are key players in the price discovery and market liquidity, regarding the standard model or the behavioral critics, it provides an assessment of dynamic interdependencies between alternative management strategies and financial markets.The first three chapters put into perspective, through original econometric approaches, hedge funds strategies with market dynamics through the study of returns , volatility and co-volatilities. Based on a wide range of results, the study reveals the many causalities between funds and markets offering to the behavioral finance elements of empirical evidence of the interactions described interms of excess volatility or financial contagion. Rich in these teachings, the last chapter finally proposes a return to theoretical models of market equilibria in order to provide a mixed picture of rational speculation in its relation to market efficency.

This thesis investigates the performance of hedge funds, funds of hedge funds and alternative Ucits together with the determinants of this performance by using new or well-suited econometric techniques. As such, it lies at the frontier of finance and financial econometrics and contributes to both fields. For the sake of clarity, we summarize the main contributions to each field separately. <p>The contribution of this thesis to the field of financial econometrics is the time-varying style analysis developed in the second chapter. This statistical tool combines the Sharpe analysis with a time-varying coefficient method; thereby, it is taking the best of both worlds. <p>Sharpe (1992) has developed the idea of “style analysis”, building on the conclusion that a regression taking into account the constraints faced by mutual funds should give a better picture of their holdings. To get an estimate of their holdings, he incorporates, in a standard regression, typical constraints related to the regulation of mutual funds, such as no short-selling and value preservation. He argues that this gives a more realistic picture of their investments and consequently better estimations of their future expected returns.<p>Unfortunately, in the style analysis, the weights are constrained to be constant. Even if, for funds of hedge funds the weights should also sum up to 1, given their dynamic nature, the constant weights seem more restrictive than for mutual funds. Hence, the econometric literature was lacking a method incorporating the constraints and the possibility for the weights to vary. Motivated by this gap, we develop a method that allows the weights to vary while being constrained to sum up to 1 by combining the Sharpe analysis with a time-varying coefficient model. As the style analysis has proven to be a valuable tool for mutual fund analysis, we believe our approach offers many potential fields of application both for funds of hedge funds and mutual funds.<p>The contributions of our thesis to the field of finance are numerous. <p>Firstly, we are the first to offer a comprehensive and exhaustive assessment of the world of FoHFs. Using both a bootstrap analysis and a method that allows dealing with multiple hypothesis tests straightforwardly, we show that after fees, the majority of FoHFs do not channel alpha from single-manager hedge funds and that only very few FoHFs deliver after-fee alpha per se, i.e. on top of the alpha of the hedge fund indices. We conclude that the added value of the vast majority of FoHFs should thus not be expected to come from the selection of the best HFs but from the risk management-monitoring skills and the easy access they provide to the HF universe.<p> <p> <p>Secondly, despite that the leverage is one of the key features of funds of hedge funds, there was a gap in the understanding of the impact it might have on the investor’s alpha. This was likely due to the quasi-absence of data about leverage and to the fact that literature was lacking a proper tool to implicitly estimate this leverage. <p>We fill this gap by proposing a theoretical model of fund of hedge fund leverage and alpha where the cost of borrowing is increasing with leverage. In the literature, this is the first model which integrates the rising cost of borrowing in the leverage decision of FoHFs. We use this model to determine the conditions under which the leverage has a negative or a positive impact on investor’s alpha and show that the manager has an incentive to take a leverage that hurts the investor’s alpha. Next, using estimates of the leverages of a sample of FoHFs obtained through the time-varying style analysis, we show that leverage has indeed a negative impact on alphas and appraisal ratios. We argue that this effect may be an explanation for the disappointing alphas delivered by funds of hedge funds and can be interpreted as a potential explanation for the “capacity constraints ” effect. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to report and explain this negative relationship between alpha and leverage in the industry. <p>Thirdly, we show the interest of the time-varying coefficient model in hedge fund performance assessment and selection. Since the literature underlines that manager skills are varying with macro-economic conditions, the alpha should be dynamic. Unfortunately, using ordinary least-squares regressions forces the estimate of the alpha to be constant over the estimation period. The alpha of an OLS regression is thus static whereas the alpha generation process is by nature varying. On the other hand, we argue that the time-varying alpha captures this dynamic behaviour. <p>As the literature shows that abnormal-return persistence is essentially short-term, we claim that using the quasi-instantaneous detection ability of the time-varying model to determine the abnormal-return should lead to outperforming portfolios. Using a persistence analysis, we check this conjecture and show that contrary to top performers in terms of OLS alpha, the top performers in terms of past time-varying alpha generate superior and significant ex-post performance. Additionally, we contribute to the literature on the topic by showing that persistence exists and can be as long as 3 years. Finally, we use the time-varying analysis to obtain estimates of the expected returns of hedge funds and show that using those estimates in a mean-variance framework leads to better ex-post performance. Therefore, we conclude that in terms of hedge fund performance detection, the time-varying model is superior to the OLS analysis.<p>Lastly, we investigate the funds that have chosen to adopt the “Alternative UCITS” framework. Contrary to the previous frameworks that were designed for mutual fund managers, this new set of European Union directives can be suited to hedge fund-like strategies. We show that for Ucits funds there is some evidence, although weak, of the added value of offshore experience. On the other hand, we find no evidence of added value in the case of non-offshore experienced managers. Motivated to further refine our results, we separate Ucits with offshore experienced managers into two groups: those with equivalent offshore hedge funds (replicas) and those without (new funds). This time, Ucits with no offshore equivalents show low volatility and a strongly positive alpha. Ucits with offshore equivalents on the other hand bring no added value and, not surprisingly, bear no substantial differences in their risk profile with their paired funds offshore. Therefore, we conclude that offshore experience plays a significant role in creating positive alpha, as long as it translates into real innovations. If the fund is a pure replica, the additional costs brought by the Ucits structure represent a handicap that is hardly compensated. As “Alternative Ucits” have only been scarcely investigated, this paper represents a contribution to the better understanding of those funds.<p>In summary, this thesis improves the knowledge of the distribution, detection and determinants of the performance in the industry of hedge funds. It also shows that a specific field such as the hedge fund industry can still tell us more about the sources of its performance as long as we can use methodologies in adequacy with their behaviour, uses, constraints and habits. We believe that both our results and the methods we use pave the way for future research questions in this field, and are of the greatest interest for professionals of the industry as well.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Thesis (MAcc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die ontstaan van verskansingsfondse in Suid-Afrika het die afgelope dekade baie reaksie ontlok vanaf reguleerders wat onseker is oor die werking van hierdie fondse. Verskansingsfondse is ‘n nuwe tipe beleggingsinstrument wat gebruik maak van verskeie verskansingstegnieke om beleggers se fondse tot ‘n maksimum te laat groei. Hierdie fondse is uniek in vergelyking met tradisionele beleggings. Die rede hiervoor, is weens die feit dat hierdie beleggingstegnieke die fonds se beleggingswaarde kan laat groei, hoewel die tradisionele belegging oor dieselfde tydperk, ‘n daling mag ervaar gedurende ‘n tydperk wat markte swak presteer. Tans word riglyne aan fondsbestuurders van verskansingsfondse verskaf deur wetgewing, maar die werking van hierdie fondse word nog nie gereguleer nie. Die feit dat die werking van verskansingsfondse nie tans in Suid-Afrika gereguleer word nie lei direk tot die vraag oor die belasbaarheid van ontvangste en toevallings vanaf verskansingsfondse. Die spesifieke probleem wat nagevors word ingevolge die studie is die vraag of ontvangste en toevallings vanaf verskansingsfondse kapitaal of inkomste van aard is. Die Raad van Finansiële Dienste is tans in die proses om ‘n beter begrip te verkry rakende die werking van verskansingsfondse en poog om die werking van verskansingsfondse binne die nadere toekoms te reguleer ingevolge wetgewing. Hierdie regulering van die werking van verskansingsfondse kan heel moontlik direk leiding verskaf ten opsigte van die belastinghantering van ontvangste en toevallings vanaf verskansingsfondse, aangesien daar sprake is dat die Raad van Finansiële Dienste graag verskansingsfondse onder die Wet op Beheer van Kollektiewe Beleggingskemas wil reguleer. Die Inkomstebelastingwet reguleer die belasbaarheid van ontvangste en toevallings vanaf kollektiewe beleggingskemas in effekte en indien verskansingsfondse geklassifiseer sou word as ‘n kollektiewe beleggingskema in effekte, sal geen onsekerheid bestaan rakende die belastinghantering daarvan nie. Bogenoemde is egter nog nie Wetgewing in Suid-Afrika nie en die navorsingstudie kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat die bepaling van belasbaarheid van ontvangste en toevallings vanaf verskansingsfondse gebaseer moet word op regspraak se beginsels neergelê as riglyne vir die bepaling of ontvangste en toevallings kapitaal of inkomste van aard is. Elke situasie en transaksie moet egter op sy eie meriete geëvalueer word, aangesien elke geval sy eie omstandighede teweegbring waarop regspraak se beginsels toegepas moet word om ‘n gevolgtrekking te maak tot tyd en wyl wetgewing die belasbaarheid van verskansingsfondse meer spesifiek reguleer. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The development of hedge funds in South Africa over the past decade evoked many reactions from regulators who are uncertain of the operations of these funds. Hedge funds are a new type of investment instrument which uses hedging techniques to maximise the growth of the investors’ funds. These funds are unique in comparison to traditional investments. This is due to the fact that the investment techniques used, can establish a growth in the value of the investment fund, whilst the traditional investment, compared over the same period, may experience a decline during a period that markets are performing badly. Currently, fund managers of hedge funds are given guidelines in terms of the law, but the operations of these funds are not regulated. The fact that operations of hedge funds currently are not regulated in South Africa gives rise to the question of taxation of receipts and accruals from hedge funds. The specific problem that is being researched by this study is the question whether the receipts and accruals from a hedge fund are of a capital or revenue nature. The Financial Services Board is currently in the process of getting a better understanding of the operations of hedge funds and strives to regulate the operations of a hedge fund in accordance to the law in the near future. The regulation of the operations of hedge funds can most probably give guidance with regards to the tax treatment of receipts and accruals from hedge funds, due to the fact that there is talk from the Financial Services Board to regulate hedge funds in accordance to the Collective Investment Scheme Act. The lncome Tax Act regulates the taxation of receipts and accruals from collective investments schemes in securities and should hedge funds be classified as a collective investment scheme in securities, there would be no uncertainty with regards to the taxation thereof. The above-mentioned does not form part of any Act in South Africa and the research study arrive to the conclusion that the determination of taxation of receipts and accruals from hedge funds should be based on the principles established by case law to give guidance to the determination of whether receipts and accruals are of a capital or revenue nature. Every situation and transaction should be evaluated on their own merits, seeing that every case can bring about their own circumstances upon which the principles established by case law should be applied until such time that the law more specifically regulates the taxation of hedge funds.