Hedge Funds

Andrew Lo's Hedge Funds is likely to be the high-water mark in the analysis of hedge funds for years to come. Focusing on hedge fund returns and trading strategies, risk characteristics, and potential for illiquidity, Lo brings to bear his always fresh and insightful thinking. -- Richard Bookstaber, author of "A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation" Lo offers a truly unique perspective. He examines the properties of returns and illiquidity in great detail and introduces an innovative concept of mean-variance-liquidity optimization, something that no other book on hedge funds has addressed. -- Narayan Y. Naik, London Business School This book provides a useful and very timely overview of key aspects of the hedge fund industry. It summarizes the basic properties of hedge fund returns, discusses why traditional performance measures may be misleading when analyzing hedge fund performance, and highlights important issues such as serial correlation, return smoothing, and illiquidity. -- Markus K. Brunnermeier, Princeton University

The hedge fund industry has grown dramatically over the years. Originally intended for the wealthy, these private investments have attracted a much broader following that includes pension funds and retail investors. This book addresses the pressing need for a systematic framework for managing hedge fund investments.The hedge fund industry has grown dramatically over the last two decades, with more than eight thousand funds now controlling close to two trillion dollars. Originally intended for the wealthy, these private investments have now attracted a much broader following that includes pension funds and retail investors. Because hedge funds are largely unregulated and shrouded in secrecy, they have developed a mystique and allure that can beguile even the most experienced investor. In Hedge Funds, Andrew Lo--one of the world's most respected financial economists--addresses the pressing need for a systematic framework for managing hedge fund investments. Arguing that hedge funds have very different risk and return characteristics than traditional investments, Lo constructs new tools for analyzing their dynamics, including measures of illiquidity exposure and performance smoothing, linear and nonlinear risk models that capture alternative betas, econometric models of hedge fund failure rates, and integrated investment processes for alternative investments. In a new chapter, he looks at how the strategies for and regulation of hedge funds have changed in the aftermath of the financial crisis.