Why do people invest in hedge funds?

Excuse me if I sound obtuse, but for investors if you have a higher likelihood of achieving a greater 5-10 year return with a passive SP500 etf vs. investing in a HF, why would one choose the latter? I understand that there are outliers in the HF space that produce phenomenal / market beating returns, (renaissance, greenlight etc.), so I could understand allocations to these.  

9 Comments
 

Are there any hedge funds in existence that are gunning for highest absolute returns instead of highest risk adjusted returns?

 

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