14 Comments
 

The part that's important is the Sharpe ratio and correlation. Low volatility and low return sound to be a Sharpe ratio of 1. At this level, you can leverage it to any risk you want and be a top hedge fund, within reason. Look at multi-managers, PMs that have a volatility of 3%, a return of 4%, correlation of 0, and make millions.

The caveat, Sharpe ratio isn't the end-all be-all, but it's a guide.

 

Jimmy - that was v helpful! Thank you. I hope you don't mind if I follow-up with a few further questions:

  1. If the strategy itself were levered as a single manager fund, I imagine that would put the strategy on par with other funds that had the same higher-vol, higher-risk characteristics?

  2. How typical is it for an emerging fund to be levered from the outset?

3a. I imagine the strategy could be levered via an SMA if investors requested it?

3b. Do you think its worth promoting that levered-SMA option, or are institutions savvy enough to request it if they see the type of numbers you mentioned?

Thanks very much in advance!

 
Most Helpful

One important point before we start is, you can leverage the excess return. If the return of stocks is 7% and the borrowing rate is 2% your excess return is 5% = 7%-2%. Therefore, leveraged return = excess return * leverage + treasury rate, leveraged volatility = volatility * leverage, and Sharpe ratio = excess return / volatility.

To answer your questions: 1. If two funds have the same Sharpe ratio they can be leveraged up or down to produce the same return and risk. The goal is to produce a return, for the least possible risk.

  1. Most hedge funds are levered 2x-5x and asset manager funds generally don't use leverage. There are some in-between cases like Bill Ackman who is a hedge fund but doesn't use leverage.

3a. There are multiple ways to get leverage, the easiest is using futures as you only need a small percentage of the contract's value. It gets more complicated when you borrow cash by using the stocks or bonds you hold as collateral. For an individual, you use a margin account. For institutional investors, it can be done in most account types, including an SMA.

3b. It's very common to promote the leveraged form of a strategy because you want to impress potential with the big return number. From there leverage can be adjusted to meet a client's goals.

For example, hedge funds like DE Shaw and Bridgewater are leveraged 4-5x and only market leveraged versions of their funds. This information is publicly available.

 

I'm not sure you understand what the Sharpe ratio represents. A sharpe of 1 implies your returns don't exceed the volatility of returns. Under such a scenario, it makes no sense to lever up. Multimanagers do lever up, but because the succesful ones generally aim for a Sharpe of 2+ that allows them to lever returns without vol getting out of hand.

To the original question, insurance cos, pension funds and family offices are likely to be interested. Assuming you can deliver a Sharpe >1.

 

For a macro fund that trades FX and Rates, with a sharpe of 0.7, with vol and var of 3-5, would it be wise to consider offering a levered strategy? Or would another option be hiring additional PMs to the fund to make use of the var? Any other options we could explore?

 

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