Hedge Funds with Style

35 Pages Posted: 3 Nov 2008

See all articles by Stephen J. Brown

Stephen J. Brown

New York University - Stern School of Business

William N. Goetzmann

Yale School of Management - International Center for Finance; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: February 2001

Abstract

The popular perception is that hedge funds follow a reasonably well defined market-neutral investment style. While this long-short investment strategy may have characterized the first hedge funds, today hedge funds are a reasonably heterogeneous group. They are better defined in terms oftheir freedom from the constraints imposed by the Investment Company Act of 1940, than they are by the particular style of investment. We study the monthly return history of hedge funds over the period 1989 through to January 2000 and find that there are in fact a number of distinct styles of management. We find that differences in investment style contribute about 20 per cent of the crosssectional variability in hedge fund performance. This result is consistent across the years of our sample and is robust to the way in which we determine investment style. We conclude that appropriate style analysis and style management are crucial to success for investors looking to invest in this market.

Suggested Citation

Brown, Stephen J. and Goetzmann, William N., Hedge Funds with Style (February 2001). NYU Working Paper No. FIN-01-018, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1294482

Stephen J. Brown

New York University - Stern School of Business ( email )

Stern School of Business
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William N. Goetzmann

Yale School of Management - International Center for Finance ( email )

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