What's the difference between l/s equity HFs and event driven HFs?
Whats the fundamental difference between these 2 types of strategy? As I see it, they are pretty much the same, as you can go long/short equity based on some certain event. Event driven HFs, particularly the ones focusing on merger arbitrage go long/short equities as well. But I guess event driven HFs focus on the credit side as well and not just equities. so far that's the only difference that I see between them 2. I find the HFs classifications very confusing: another one that I find confusing is that between event driven HFs and special situations HFs.





Long/short isn't really a
Long/short isn't really a "strategy" in and of itself. A fund described as long/short could be quantitatively taking positions and maintaining a short book to reduce market exposure, or trading pairs (long one company short another related company or index, etc), or could be a value fund that takes unrelated positions long and short.
Event-driven usually means either merger arbitrage, "special situations" like spin-outs or divestitures, or distressed depending on the fund-basically an investment with a specific "event" that will drive the investment (a merger, bankruptcy, etc.)
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