The Structural Changes of the Hedge Fund Industry Over Time
Abstract
Historically, the hedge fund industry is one of the fastest growing investment classes in the last decade. This study looks to analyze the hedge fund industry structural changes from 1994 to 2010. A premise for this study is previous research which shows small funds tend to outperform large funds. Parameters are set to determine the classification of a fund being small, medium, or large. The asset flows to each category are tracked overtime in order to show structural changes. For each category the number of small, medium, and large hedge funds in tracked over time. The results are inconclusive in analyzing the change of small and large funds of the industry over time. However, each category does show some consistent evidence of changes over time. This study ran into difficulty absolutely defining small and large funds. The methodology used divides the hedge fund universe into equal thirds. The results show over time asset flows are largest to the top third of the universe. This is contrary to the initial hypothesis that small .