投资者Put Emerging Hedge Fund Managers Under the Microscope

自2009年以来华尔街有很多改变。一件事并不是新铸造对冲基金经理的作物每年都在上市，希望能够赚到大。

对冲基金公司推出after the financial crisis are closing in on five-year track records that also coincide with one of the largest run-ups in U.S. equities in recent memory. On paper these managers may look as if they have what it takes, but do they really? Can five years be considered a line in the sand anymore? Or will investors want to see how 2016 goes before moving a manager off their “emerging” list?

August was a bad month for the hedge fund industry across almost every strategy. The Preqin All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark, published by London-based research and consulting firm Preqin, returned –1.88 percent last month, and year-to-date gains have slipped to just under 2 percent. Markets ended last week mixed after the U.S. Federal Reserve Board decided not to raise interest rates, making it look as if the recent volatility will last.

“We think it’s a good time in the market to evaluate managers,” says Andrew Fishman, president of Schonfeld Group Holdings, a New York–based family office that focuses on hedge funds in quantitative and fundamental equity strategies. Fishman points out that some firms’ difficulties in 2011 could provide a sense of how they manage volatility; recent losses may help tell the tale too.

Fishman and Schonfeld CIO Ryan Tolkin are always looking for managers who offer strategies they haven’t seen before. That search requires plenty of due diligence, but it also means finding a manager who can explain in detail what’s in a portfolio and why.

“我们最近看到了很多部门的分散，”Tolkin说。“如果您使用合理的部门经理，人们应该能够在最近的市场状况中提出良好的选择。即使经理只有在过去的五年里，那些选择也可以讲述。“

Risk management can also be a good way to separate luck from skill. Over the past few weeks, as markets tumbled, seasoned managers may have been inclined to buy into the risk, but surprisingly they held off “because of the sensitivity of the market,” says Raymond Nolte, CIO and co–managing partner at纽约的Skybridge Capital，136亿美元的对冲基金基金公司。即使他们在前往自己的资金之前，这种直觉可能并不总是来到新的经理。

关于市场的第六种意义的一部分正在学习如何为贸易或策略进行正确。例如，根据最新的情况，事件驱动的资金是八月份的一些最大的输家。Alternative Investment Industry Barometer基于Paris的Lyxor资产管理报告。但许多分配者认为，这些策略处于良好的位置，以利用2015年余下的市场条件。对于新兴的管理人员来说，关键是为了避免因响应波动而过度接近。

“较新的管理人员在活动驱动的空间中可能会发现这些市场更棘手导航，因为它们依赖于股票的催化剂，”伦敦的伦敦的伦敦·费德费·资产管理的110亿美元的对冲基金单位负责人解释说。“这介绍了较新经理在这些环境中过度传播的风险，减少了市场低点的曝光或在错误的时间内增加了尺寸尺寸。”管理组合的心理压力，并根据每月返回判断，当某些交易需要数月才能执行时，可以影响决策，Barlow增加。

If a fund’s performance starts to slide, allocators warn that it’s important for the manager to explain the situation and dig into each position. “I’m positive on many strategies, although within each area I think you have to stay nimble and be ready to move on,” says Anne-Gaelle Pouille, a member of the portfolio construction group at Pacific Alternative Asset Management Co., a $9.1 billion fund-of-funds firm based in Irvine, California.

谈到事件驱动的策略时，Pouille在合并套利中看到了机会，并在治理变化的一些日本交易中。“宏观从锋利的逆转带来风险，所以我谨慎地踩踏，”她补充道。“看个人职位真的有助于了解经理的真正的β和α，以及他们的风险管理理念。”

Stripping out the real betas and alphas can also provide a view into a manager’s use of exchange-traded funds. ETFs and other exchange-traded products gathered $20.8 billion worldwide during August alone, according to London-based ETF industry consulting firm ETFGI, marking their 19th consecutive month of net inflows. Not all of these funds offer the same indexlike exposures that traditional investors are used to; many come with extras such as short exposure, which make them more attractive as investment tools and intriguing to hedge fund managers as a liquid means of getting in and out of positions. But investors bristle at the idea of paying 2 percent management and 20 percent performance fees for something they could buy directly themselves.

“We push for as little ETF use with our fundamental equity portfolio managers as possible,” says Schonfeld’s Fishman. “We want to see single-stock alphas. That said, lately, our portfolio managers have used more ETFs because takeout risk is a real problem.”

But those single-stock alphas are hard to come by during a prolonged equities rally or even in a month like August, when everything was down except volatility. Pouille notes that using a basket of ETFs in the recent rally may have helped managers move directionally when a single-stock short was nowhere to be found. “I also believe some credit should be given to managers who exhibit skill in trading ETFs,” she says. “This is definitely different than just buying and holding an ETF off the shelf.”

Certain strategies will see a larger impact than others from the rise ofETFS.。“ETF在利基战略中造成的威胁，但对于更高的Beta策略，ETF将成为一个更大的威胁，”佛罗里达州的柯林斯的Collins Capital Investinments，斯蒂芬梅森，斯蒂芬梅森，珊瑚岛的柯林斯资本投资，1,462百万美元-of-funds公司。

即使对冲基金经理开始使用更多ETF，如果波动仍然存在，它们可能不会面临着投资者的推动力。这部分是因为分配者的高回报率并不多，以停放现金。低产环境也可以为新的管理者提供一点额外的跑道，以建立更强大的业务并坚持投资者。

“小型管理人员空间有一些营业额 - 这就是您在市场上看到创造性的破坏的地方，”伦敦的投资组合管理负责人安东尼·劳德勒表示，即1328亿美元的瑞士资产经理Gam。“另一方面，许多投资者是传统债券和股权拨款的负持续期末。如果他们有替代品，他们可能只下降了1％，或者它们可能上涨2或3％，这意味着它们不会急于改变任何东西。“