i did a moderately deep drill down on some of these things.... barclay hedge data etc.
the category long-short market-neutral hedge funds seems to have anywhere from 0.4 to 0.7 beta. that's pretty high for market-neutral.. i'm curious as to how closely and real-time their investors track this.... being long MU,FCX, LVS etc. and short XLP (consumer staples) is not market-neutral.
pete, as per 20% market-neutral track record. that is the past. that is one of the the best managers out of tens of thousands and we've basically had giant investment waves since 1995. didn't need tons of stock picking to do really well. definitely need right general industries but not that many shifts/trades.
are really successful hedge funds like SAC and Renaissance? market neutral. because they do/did charge huge fees.
if tons of funds are market-neutral, is that long-short or long and then S&P 500 derivatives hedge? if it's the latter, does the hedge fund manager or the ultimate investor - like Yale - do that?
one thing to keep in mind about hedge funds in the USA. trading gains on positions held less than a year pay much much higher tax rate. so even your amazing trading hedge fund manager needs to beat the benchmark soundly to make up for the negative tax alpha........ not true most other countries and many hedge fund investors are non-taxed...
anyway, i want to learn more and it seems like many of us on here know alot about this but different things.. which is good
btw, if you've never heard of any of renaissance and jim simons sp/name?, bridgewater/ray dalio and AQR/Asness, you can learn a ton reading about them and their work. the latter 2 more. renaissance/simons is more just staggeringly good long-term record.