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Diversification in Funds of Hedge Funds: Is It Possible to Overdiversify?

Author

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  • Stephen J. Brown
  • Greg N. Gregoriou
  • Razvan Pascalau

Abstract

Many institutions are attracted to diversified portfolios of hedge funds, referred to as Funds of Hedge Funds (FoHFs). In this article, we examine a new database that separates out for the first time the effects of diversification (the number of underlying hedge funds) from scale (the magnitude of assets under management). We find with others that the variance-reducing effects of diversification diminish once FoHFs hold more than 20 underlying hedge funds. This excess diversification actually increases their left-tail risk exposure once we account for return smoothing. Furthermore, the average FoHF in our sample is more exposed to left-tail risk than are naïve $1/N$ randomly chosen portfolios. This increase in tail risk is accompanied by lower returns, which we attribute to the cost of necessary due diligence that increases with the number of hedge funds.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen J. Brown & Greg N. Gregoriou & Razvan Pascalau, 2012. "Diversification in Funds of Hedge Funds: Is It Possible to Overdiversify?," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 2(1), pages 89-110.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rasset:v:2:y:2012:i:1:p:89-110.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rapstu/rar003
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Racicot, François-Éric & Théoret, Raymond, 2019. "Hedge fund return higher moments over the business cycle," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 73-97.
    2. François-Éric Racicot & Raymond Théoret, 2016. "The q-factor model and the redundancy of the value factor: An application to hedge funds," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(7), pages 526-539, December.
    3. Gregoriou, Greg N. & Racicot, François-Éric & Théoret, Raymond, 2021. "The response of hedge fund tail risk to macroeconomic shocks: A nonlinear VAR approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 843-872.
    4. Racicot, François-Éric & Théoret, Raymond, 2018. "Multi-moment risk, hedging strategies, & the business cycle," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 637-675.
    5. Cui, Wei & Yao, Juan, 2020. "Funds of hedge funds: Are they really the high society for little guys?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 346-361.
    6. Agarwal, Vikas & Green, Tracy Clifton & Ren, Honglin, 2017. "Alpha or beta in the eye of the beholder: What drives hedge fund flows?," CFR Working Papers 15-08, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR), revised 2017.
    7. Turan G. Bali & Stephen J. Brown & K. Ozgur Demirtas, 2013. "Do Hedge Funds Outperform Stocks and Bonds?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(8), pages 1887-1903, August.
    8. Agarwal, Vikas & Ruenzi, Stefan & Weigert, Florian, 2017. "Tail risk in hedge funds: A unique view from portfolio holdings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 610-636.
    9. Agarwal, Vikas & Green, T. Clifton & Ren, Honglin, 2018. "Alpha or beta in the eye of the beholder: What drives hedge fund flows?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(3), pages 417-434.
    10. Dorfleitner, Gregor & Fischer, Lukas & Lung, Carina & Willmertinger, Philipp & Stang, Nico & Dietrich, Natalie, 2018. "To follow or not to follow – An empirical analysis of the returns of actors on social trading platforms," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 160-171.
    11. Lee, Jennifer Eunkyeong & Cho, Hoon & Ryu, Doojin & Seok, Sangik, 2023. "Does performance-chasing behavior matter? International evidence," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    12. Bali, Turan G. & Brown, Stephen J. & Caglayan, Mustafa O., 2014. "Macroeconomic risk and hedge fund returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 1-19.
    13. Monica Billio & Lorenzo Frattarolo & Loriana Pelizzon, 2016. "Hedge Fund Tail Risk: An investigation in stressed markets, extended version with appendix," Working Papers 2016:01, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    14. Hwang, Inchang & Xu, Simon & In, Francis & Kim, Tong Suk, 2017. "Systemic risk and cross-sectional hedge fund returns," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 109-130.
    15. Papageorgiou, Nicolas & Reeves, Jonathan J. & Xie, Xuan, 2016. "Betas and the myth of market neutrality," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 548-558.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

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