IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/revfec/v29y2016i1p12-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Synthetic hedge funds

Author

Listed:
  • Mario Fischer
  • Matthias X. Hanauer
  • Robert Heigermoser

Abstract

We provide evidence on the performance and the replication success of a broad sample of 72 synthetic hedge funds from January 2009 to December 2013. Thereby, we assign the term “synthetic hedge fund” to mutual funds and exchange‐traded funds with hedge fund indices as their benchmarks. Replication success is measured through different perspectives from distributional characteristics to risk‐adjusted performance. We find an overall significant underperformance of synthetic hedge funds compared to an appropriate benchmark index. Furthermore, mutual funds (associated with active portfolio management) can produce return characteristics closer to hedge fund benchmarks than exchange‐traded funds (associated with passive management) can. From a single strategy perspective, we find a picture of heterogeneity. Regarding the market environment, we show larger return differences for unusual market conditions than for regular ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Mario Fischer & Matthias X. Hanauer & Robert Heigermoser, 2016. "Synthetic hedge funds," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 12-22, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:revfec:v:29:y:2016:i:1:p:12-22
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rfe.2016.02.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rfe.2016.02.002
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rfe.2016.02.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Mitchell & Todd Pulvino, 2001. "Characteristics of Risk and Return in Risk Arbitrage," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(6), pages 2135-2175, December.
    2. Dybvig, Philip H, 1988. "Distributional Analysis of Portfolio Choice," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(3), pages 369-393, July.
    3. William Fung & David A. Hsieh & Narayan Y. Naik & Tarun Ramadorai, 2008. "Hedge Funds: Performance, Risk, and Capital Formation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1777-1803, August.
    4. Amin, Gaurav S. & Kat, Harry M., 2003. "Hedge Fund Performance 1990–2000: Do the “Money Machines” Really Add Value?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(2), pages 251-274, June.
    5. Vikas Agarwal, 2004. "Risks and Portfolio Decisions Involving Hedge Funds," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 63-98.
    6. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    7. Gregoriou, Greg N., 2006. "Funds of Hedge Funds," Elsevier Monographs, Elsevier, edition 1, number 9780750679848.
    8. Noël Amenc & Lionel Martellini & Jean†Christophe Meyfredi & Volker Ziemann, 2010. "Passive Hedge Fund Replication – Beyond the Linear Case," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 16(2), pages 191-210, March.
    9. Fung, William & Hsieh, David A., 2011. "The risk in hedge fund strategies: Theory and evidence from long/short equity hedge funds," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 547-569, September.
    10. Fung, William & Hsieh, David A, 2001. "The Risk in Hedge Fund Strategies: Theory and Evidence from Trend Followers," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 313-341.
    11. Fung, William & Hsieh, David A, 1997. "Empirical Characteristics of Dynamic Trading Strategies: The Case of Hedge Funds," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(2), pages 275-302.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fischer, Mario & Hanauer, Matthias X. & Heigermoser, Robert, 2016. "Synthetic hedge funds," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 12-22.
    2. Wilkens, Marco & Yao, Juan & Jeyasreedharan, Nagaratnam & Oehler, Patrick, 2013. "Measuring the performance of hedge funds using two-stage peer group benchmarks," Working Papers 2013-18, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, revised 01 Jun 2013.
    3. El Kalak, Izidin & Azevedo, Alcino & Hudson, Robert, 2016. "Reviewing the hedge funds literature II: Hedge funds' returns and risk management characteristics," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 55-66.
    4. Jung‐Soon Shin & Minki Kim & Dongjun Oh & Tong Suk Kim, 2019. "Do hedge funds time market tail risk? Evidence from option‐implied tail risk," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 205-237, February.
    5. Agarwal, Vikas & Fung, William H. & Loon, Yee Cheng & Naik, Narayan Y., 2004. "Risk and return in convertible arbitrage: Evidence from the convertible bond market," CFR Working Papers 04-03, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    6. Agarwal, Vikas & Kale, Jayant R., 2007. "On the relative performance of multi-strategy and funds of hedge funds," CFR Working Papers 07-11, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    7. Nucera, Federico & Valente, Giorgio, 2013. "Carry trades and the performance of currency hedge funds," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 407-425.
    8. Benoît Dewaele, 2013. "Leverage and Alpha: The Case of Funds of Hedge Funds," Working Papers CEB 13-033, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    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. Agarwal, Vikas & Arisoy, Y. Eser & Naik, Narayan Y., 2017. "Volatility of aggregate volatility and hedge fund returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 491-510.
    11. Agarwal, Vikas & Fos, Vyacheslav & Jiang, Wei, 2010. "Inferring reporting biases in hedge fund databases from hedge fund equity holdings," CFR Working Papers 10-08, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    12. Fung, William & Hsieh, David A., 2011. "The risk in hedge fund strategies: Theory and evidence from long/short equity hedge funds," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 547-569, September.
    13. Schauten, Marc B.J. & Willemstein, Robin & Zwinkels, Remco C.J., 2015. "A tale of feedback trading by hedge funds," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 239-259.
    14. 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.
    15. Funga, William & Hsiehb, David A., 2013. "Hedge Funds," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1063-1125, Elsevier.
    16. Benoît Dewaele, 2013. "Portfolio Optimization for Hedge Funds through Time-Varying Coefficients," Working Papers CEB 13-032, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    17. Akihiko Takahashi & Kyo Yamamoto, 2008. "Hedge Fund Replication," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-592, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    18. Nicolas P.B. Bollen & Robert E. Whaley, 2009. "Hedge Fund Risk Dynamics: Implications for Performance Appraisal," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 985-1035, April.
    19. Capocci, Daniel, 2006. "Neutrality of market neutral funds," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 309-333, December.
    20. Akihiko Takahashi & Kyo Yamamoto, 2008. "Hedge Fund Replication ?Revised in November 2008, forthcoming in The Recent Trend of Hedge Fund Strategies)," CARF F-Series CARF-F-137, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:revfec:v:29:y:2016:i:1:p:12-22. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1873-5924 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.