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Swedroe: Why Do Hedge Funds Exist?

Hedge funds entered 2017 coming off their eighth-straight year of trailing U.S. stocks (as measured by the S&P 500 Index) by significant margins.

And for the 10-year period ending 2016—one that included the worst bear market in the post-Depression era—the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index produced a negative return (-0.6%), underperforming every single major equity and bond asset class.

These results help explain why more hedge funds closed in 2016 than in any year since the 2008 financial crisis, as investors moved their money to larger firms and withdrew assets. Liquidations last year totaled 1,057, and outflows were $70.2 billion.

Unfortunately for hedge fund investors, so far 2017 has not been much better. Over the first nine months of the year, the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index returned just 4.4%. The following table shows the returns in the first three quarters of 2017 for various equity and fixed-income indexes.

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Underperforming Globally As Well

As you can see, the hedge fund index underperformed nine of the 10 major equity asset classes, but outperformed two of the three bond indexes. We can, however, take our analysis a step further and determine how hedge funds performed against a globally diversified portfolio.

An all-equity portfolio allocated 50% internationally and 50% domestically, equally weighted in the indexes within those broad categories, would have returned 15.6%, outperforming the hedge fund index by 11.2 percentage points.

60/40 Also Beats Them

Another comparison we can make is to a typical balanced portfolio of 60% equities and 40% bonds. Using the same weighting methodology as above for the equity allocation, the portfolio would have returned 9.6% using one-year Treasuries, 10.3% using five-year Treasuries and 11.3% using long-term Treasuries. Each of the three would have far outperformed the hedge fund index.

With the freedom to move across asset classes that hedge funds often tout as their big advantage, one would think that would have occurred.

The problem is that the efficiency of the market, as well as the costs of the effort, turns that supposed advantage into a handicap. Given the evidence, it’s a puzzle why hedge funds are still managing about $3 trillion in assets.

Larry Swedroe is the director of research for The BAM Alliance, a community of more than 140 independent registered investment advisors throughout the country.

 

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