Hedge Fund Rankings/Information

Anybody have any good websites where you can access free information on hedge funds with ranking without having to pay $800 a year for a subscription to alpha magazine? looking to compare different ones on the basis of strategy, size, etc...

 
Best Response

This is a tough one. As you probably know the hedge fund industry tends to be opaque and somewhat secretive. The result is that obtaining information, especially on a standardized basis, is difficult to do. Databases like HFR, AltVest and HedgeFund.net are the best sources for the info you are seeking but each costs $$$. These sources allow for easy comparison. Besides these, you might find some information on managers through weekly or monthly publications like Hedge Fund Alert or Alpha magazine but again these cost $$$. The same goes for daily e-mail services like the Alternative Market Briefing (opalesque.com). In the latter two examples, searching by characteristics or manager attributes is challenging.

The other problem you have with all of these methods is that information is often inaccurate or incomplete for managers/funds, making analysis difficult. The only solution for this problem is to actually know as many managers in the space as possible or hire someone or a firm that does.

 

no 13f prob means the fund is less than $25mm aum w/ 1 managing partner running the show out of his house or small office.

Disclaimer for the Kids: Any forward-looking statements are solely for informational purposes and cannot be taken as investment advice. Consult your moms before deciding where to invest.
 

Correct, funds below $25m don't need to file with SEC. If they have more than three clients in their state they may be required to be registered with the state (depending on the state and various other factors), so you could check there.

 

HedgeTracker.

[quote]The HBS guys have MAD SWAGGER. They frequently wear their class jackets to boston bars, strutting and acting like they own the joint. They just ooze success, confidence, swagger, basically attributes of alpha males.[/quote]
 

Try looking up their form ADV (I should remember, but don't if it's part I or II that has this info) through the SEC, that should tell you their AUM at the end of last year, the primary owners of the business (and the range of ownership for each owner), their fee rates, a brief description of their strategies, and other things like that. It's only updated once per year, so the data will be a little stale, but usually helpful anyway.

For example: SAC Capital http://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Firm/161111

If they have less than $100 million in AUM at the end of last year, they might only be state registered. I am not sure, but you may be able to find similar info on the state regulator's site.

 

Keep in mind that September was not a picnic either and returns are (almost certainly) worse than August YTD. Healthcare has gotten killed across the board - pharma, biotech and services all got smoked. You have generalist funds that have gotten in here for some of these pharma names that have been smoked... ie everyone's favorite roll-up story Valeant.

 

I think a lot of people are misinterpreting hedge fund performance YTD 2015. First off, the large hedge funds I am quite familiar with (2bn to 40bn multi-strat funds) are market neutral. Meaning, at any given point in time they are shorting stocks and longing stocks, creating pair trades. Now, the idea here is there will be some stocks in a sector or type of strategy/focus that will go up and down, so if overall market macro is pushing down or up, the hedge fund is not booking losses or gains... the way this strategy works out is their buys outperform their peers and if the shorts underperform their peers beyond the market volatility. There are times where trades totally fall apart, but hedge funds can counter this by buying options on sectors/FX/interest rates/specific stocks.

With the above being said, there are a bunch of funds that do not run a makret neutral book and have lost money due to bad timing or misunderstanding the type of volatility we are encountering. I know the majority of tech funds around have been getting hit pretty hard.

.
 
OrangeBanana:

Just as more context, I guess I'm trying to see how much weight I should put on the fund's historical returns versus culture, fund size, pedigree, compensation etc

Very little weight towards historical return. Of course if they flat out suck then it's out of the question but most of the time you should look at the other variables that you mentioned. The most important thing is how smart your boss is and how much you can learn from him. Culture and compensation are great too... but if you want longevity in this business you need to be learning from the right source.

 

5% after fees for a market neutral fund

Disclaimer for the Kids: Any forward-looking statements are solely for informational purposes and cannot be taken as investment advice. Consult your moms before deciding where to invest.
 

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