CAIA - 32 - Funds of Hedge Funds and Multi-Strategy Funds Flashcards
What are the 3 approaches to investing in hedge funds?
- Direct
- Delegated
- Indexed
What is the main disadvantage to investing directly with hedge funds?
It requires minimum capital levels and financial sophistication.
What are the 3 advantages to investing directly in hedge funds?
- Cost savings
- Access to cost effective, experienced consultants
- Greater control and transparency
What is the delegated approach to investing in hedge funds?
Investing in a fund of funds
What are the 5 services provided by the delegated, or fund of funds approach?
- S
- D
- S
- P
- R
What are the 5 services provided by the delegated, or fund of funds approach?
- Sourcing
- Due diligence
- Strategy and selection
- Portfolio Construction
- Risk management and monitoring
Why is sourcing an advantage to fund of funds?
They can provide access to higher quality hedge funds
Does academic research suggest that Fund of Fund’s additional layer of fees justify the operational due diligence they perform?
Yes - Large FoFs outperform small FoFs by a significant margin, indicating fees are justified.
Has the value proposition of FoFs increased, decreased or stayed the same? Why?
Decreased as investors have become more sophisticated.
What idiosyncratic risk can be reduced through the FoF structure in case of an underlying hedge fund failure?
Headline risk
How are hedge fund index products typically sold?
Certificates or principal guaranteed notes
What products have recently become available that provide hedge fund exposure without the drawbacks?
Liquid Alternative Funds
What are the 3 advantages to liquid alternative funds?
- Daily liquidity
- Lower fees
- Improved transparency
What has historically been the hedge fund of fund fee structure and how has that changed?
1% and 10% but those fees have been declining due to poor performance
what is a typical fund of fund fee for large allocations now?
50-100 bps with no incentive fee
What are the typical lock up and liquidity provisions of a fund of fund?
1 year lock up, quarterly redemptions with between 90 and 180 days notice and monthly subscriptions
Hedge fund flows have been skewed toward what type of managers lately?
Larger managers
What did Xiong et. al (2009) conclude?
FoF performance, fund flows, and asset size are positively correlated.
What are the 4 different methods of FoF diversification?
- Diversified
- Concentrated
- Single-strategy
- Tactical
How many funds are typically in a diversified hedge fund of fund?
30-50
How many funds are typically in a concentrated FoF strategy?
5-10
What is a single strategy fund of funds?
A FoF that allocates across several funds that follow the same strategy
How many funds are typically in a tactical FoF?
5-15
Are fund of fund databases exposed to the same biases as individual hedge fund databases?
They are exposed to very little if any
What are the 3 biases present in individual hedge fund databases that have very little, if any presence in FoFs databases?
- Survivorship bias
- Selection bias
- History (backfill) bias