Are they any good?
>>1234015
skewered results cause of fees and bonus payouts
>>1234015
>>1234015
Depends on the PM. Unlike a doctor or a pilot, anyone can call himself a HF manager without a licence or a badge. All you need is a prime broker, an auditor and a legally reviewed offering memorandum.
Lots of former bank traders have set up their own HF's and are delivering consistent, above market returns. They are having a nice time, don't need to wear ties and attend silly meetings anymore. You'll never hear of those, because they have their network (e.g. investors) by the time they go live linded up already, and rarely accept new clients.
Then there are the wannabes. They heard of the obscene amount of $$$ one can make as a HF PM, and want a piece of the cake. They don't care about such details like lack of experience, track record or capabilites. All they're aiming for are models and bottles. They burn their clients money while charging really high fees and give the whole industry a bad name.
True story.
If we are going to follow the EMH they like to teach at school then no. And if you look at the average hedge funds you can see that they are shit and never do better than the market - but there are clearly some funds which have actually been able to achieve above market returns - whether by luck or skill is hard to say, though I'd probably assume many of the short term succesful ones are just lucky.
>>1234166
>but there are clearly some funds which have actually been able to achieve above market returns
that's insider trading my friend these people have great connections and get a heads up.
>>1234015
No. Some funds can get better than market returns but once you factor in the expense ratio you are worse off.
You are better off with just buying a passively managed fund such as an index based ETF.