scholarly journals Hedge Fund Performance Evaluation Using The Sharpe And Omega Ratios

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francois Van Dyk ◽  
Gary Van Vuuren ◽  
Andre Heymans

The Sharpe ratio is widely used as a performance evaluation measure for traditional (i.e., long only) investment funds as well as less-conventional funds such as hedge funds. Based on mean-variance theory, the Sharpe ratio only considers the first two moments of return distributions, so hedge funds characterised by asymmetric, highly-skewed returns with non-negligible higher moments may be misdiagnosed in terms of performance. The Sharpe ratio is also susceptible to manipulation and estimation error. These drawbacks have demonstrated the need for augmented measures, or, in some cases, replacement fund performance metrics. Over the period January 2000 to December 2011 the monthly returns of 184 international long/short (equity) hedge funds with geographical investment mandates spanning North America, Europe, and Asia were examined. This study compares results obtained using the Sharpe ratio (in which returns are assumed to be serially uncorrelated) with those obtained using a technique which does account for serial return correlation. Standard techniques for annualising Sharpe ratios, based on monthly estimators, do not account for this effect. In addition, this study assesses whether the Omega ratio supplements the Sharpe Ratio in the evaluation of hedge fund risk and thus in the investment decision-making process. The Omega and Sharpe ratios were estimated on a rolling basis to ascertain whether the Omega ratio does indeed provide useful additional information to investors to that provided by the Sharpe ratio alone.

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1261
Author(s):  
Francois Van Dyk ◽  
Gary Van Vuuren ◽  
Andre Heymans

The Sharpe ratio is widely used as a performance measure for traditional (i.e., long only) investment funds, but because it is based on mean-variance theory, it only considers the first two moments of a return distribution. It is, therefore, not suited for evaluating funds characterised by complex, asymmetric, highly-skewed return distributions such as hedge funds. It is also susceptible to manipulation and estimation error. These drawbacks have demonstrated the need for new and additional fund performance metrics. The monthly returns of 184 international long/short (equity) hedge funds from four geographical investment mandates were examined over an 11-year period.This study contributes to recent research on alternative performance measures to the Sharpe ratio and specifically assesses whether a scaled-version of the classic Sharpe ratio should augment the use of the Sharpe ratio when evaluating hedge fund risk and in the investment decision-making process. A scaled Treynor ratio is also compared to the traditional Treynor ratio. The classic and scaled versions of the Sharpe and Treynor ratios were estimated on a 36-month rolling basis to ascertain whether the scaled ratios do indeed provide useful additional information to investors to that provided solely by the classic, non-scaled ratios.


2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francois Van Dyk ◽  
Gary Van Vuuren ◽  
Andre Heymans

The Sharpe ratio is widely used as a performance evaluation measure for traditional (i.e., long only) investment funds as well as less-conventional funds such as hedge funds. Based on mean-variance theory, the Sharpe ratio only considers the first two moments of return distributions, so hedge funds characterised by complex, asymmetric, highly-skewed returns with non-negligible higher moments may be misdiagnosed in terms of performance. The Sharpe ratio is also susceptible to manipulation and estimation error. These drawbacks have demonstrated the need for augmented measures, or, in some cases, replacement fund performance metrics. Over the period January 2000 to December 2011 the monthly returns of 184 international long/short (equity) hedge funds with investment mandates that span the geographical areas of North America, Europe, and Asia were examined. This study compares results obtained using the Sharpe ratio (in which returns are assumed to be serially uncorrelated) with those obtained using a technique which does account for serial return correlation. Standard techniques for annualising Sharpe ratios, based on monthly estimators, do not account for serial return correlation this study compares Sharpe ratio results obtained using a technique which accounts for serial return correlation. In addition, this study assess whether the Bias ratio supplements the Sharpe ratio in the evaluation of hedge fund risk and thus in the investment decision-making process. The Bias and Sharpe ratios were estimated on a rolling basis to ascertain whether the Bias ratio does indeed provide useful additional information to investors to that provided solely by the Sharpe ratio.


Author(s):  
Komlan Sedzro

Hedge funds are still relatively unfamiliar to most investors despite the intense popularity they have enjoyed in recent years. Measuring the performance of these financial instruments using traditional methods is, however, problematic, since their returns do not follow a normal distribution. In this study, we consider rankings obtained with the Stochastic Dominance (SD) method and compare them with ranks produced using Sharpe Ratios, Modified Sharpe Ratios, and Data Envelopment Analysis. We also explore the advantages highlighted by the literature of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method in relation to traditional measures like Sharpe ratio and Modified Sharpe ratio. Our results show that classic performance measures are better correlated with SD than DEA results.


Author(s):  
David M. Smith

A diverse set of measures allow investors to evaluate hedge fund portfolio managers’ performance across different dimensions. The various measures quantify the effectiveness of security selection; account for investor flows, operating risk, and worst-case investment scenarios; net out benchmark and peer-fund performance; and control for risk factors that are unique to hedge fund investment strategies. Hedge fund return information in published databases is usually self-reported, which is a conflict of interest that produces several reporting biases and inflated published average returns. After adjusting for these biases, hedge fund average returns trail equity market returns and in fact almost exactly equal U.S. Treasury bill average returns between January 1994 and March 2016. Yet, after risk adjustment, the hedge fund performance picture brightens. In the aggregate, hedge funds have higher Sharpe ratios and multifactor alphas, and lower maximum drawdown levels than equity market benchmarks.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 565-586
Author(s):  
James Rambo ◽  
Gary Van Vuuren

Hedge funds are notorious for being opaque investment vehicles, operating beyond regulation and out of reach of the average investor. In the past decade, however, they have become increasingly accessible to industry and investors. Hedge fund investment vehicles have become more complex with disparate strategies employed to obtain hedged returns. With this added complexity and impenetrability of managerial tactics, investors need a robust means of distinguishing 'good' funds from 'bad'. The most commonly used ratio to do this is the Sharpe ratio, but hedge funds exhibit non-normal returns because of their use of derivatives, short selling and leverage. The Omega ratio accounts for all moments of the return distribution and in this article, it is used to rank fund returns and compare results obtained with those obtained from the Sharpe ratio over an expansionary period (2001 to 2007) and a period of economic difficulty (2008 to 2013). The Omega ratio is found to provide far superior rankings. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haitao Li ◽  
Yuewu Xu ◽  
Xiaoyan Zhang

AbstractWe study hedge fund performance evaluation under the stochastic discount factor framework of Farnsworth, Ferson, Jackson, and Todd (FFJT). To accommodate dynamic trading strategies and derivatives used by hedge funds, we extend FFJT’s approach by considering models with option and time-averaged risk factors and incorporating option returns in model estimation. A wide range of models yield similar conclusions on the performance of simulated long/short equity hedge funds. We apply these models to 2,315 actual long/short equity funds from the Lipper TASS database and find that a small portion of these funds can outperform the market.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lingling Zheng ◽  
Xuemin (Sterling) Yan

Affiliation with a financial conglomerate may provide hedge funds with superior information about the conglomerate’s lending, investment banking, and brokerage clients; such affiliation can also lead to potential conflicts with the other units of the conglomerate and exacerbate the conflict between hedge fund companies and hedge fund investors. We find that affiliated funds significantly underperform unaffiliated funds. A difference-in-difference analysis confirms the negative relation between financial industry affiliation and hedge fund performance. Affiliated funds pursue asset-gathering strategies, overweight their conducted initial public offerings/seasoned equity offerings clients’ stocks, are more likely to commit legal and regulatory violations, and tend to exhibit a greater number of internal conflicts. Our results are consistent with conflict of interest exerting a negative impact on the performance of affiliated hedge funds. However, it is possible that lack of skill also contributes to the underperformance of affiliated funds. This paper was accepted by Karl Diether, finance.


Author(s):  
George (Yiorgos) Allayannis ◽  
Mark R. Eaker ◽  
Alec Bocock

Fred Bocock was examining the performance of the Energy Hedge Fund and the Energy Portfolio, a hedge fund and a mutual fund respectively, which he manages. Bocock had become increasingly aware that absolute returns or relative returns (returns relative to a benchmark) may not adequately capture his performance and some measure of risk-adjusted performance was necessary. The Dynamis Energy Hedge Fund extends the discussion of performance evaluation into the hedge fund arena. (See “Zeus Asset Management,” UVA-F-1232, for an examination of performance evaluation techniques in the mutual funds arena.) More broadly, the case engages students in discussions on what hedge funds are, what investment strategies they use, and who their investors are. Since the portfolio manager of Dynamis manages both an oil sector equity mutual fund and an oil sector hedge fund, the case allows for a comparison between a hedge fund and a mutual fund. Students should consider the pros and cons of evaluating the performance of the oil stock mutual fund against a number of oil sector stock indices as well as against a number of generic indices, such as the S&P 500 Index. The use of futures, options, shorts, and leverage by hedge funds makes it a lot more difficult to measure their performance. The case comes with a spreadsheet that contains data on the energy mutual fund, the Dynamis hedge fund, and several relevant indices.


2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (12) ◽  
pp. 5505-5531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Grinblatt ◽  
Gergana Jostova ◽  
Lubomir Petrasek ◽  
Alexander Philipov

Classifying mandatory 13F stockholding filings by manager type reveals that hedge fund strategies are mostly contrarian, and mutual fund strategies are largely trend following. The only institutional performers—the two thirds of hedge fund managers that are contrarian—earn alpha of 2.4% per year. Contrarian hedge fund managers tend to trade profitably with all other manager types, especially when purchasing stocks from momentum-oriented hedge and mutual fund managers. Superior contrarian hedge fund performance exhibits persistence and stems from stock-picking ability rather than liquidity provision. Aggregate short sales further support these conclusions about the style and skill of various fund manager types. This paper was accepted by Tyler Shumway, finance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (10) ◽  
pp. 4771-4810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemens Sialm ◽  
Zheng Sun ◽  
Lu Zheng

Abstract Our paper analyzes the geographical preferences of hedge fund investors and the implication of these preferences for hedge fund performance. We find that funds of hedge funds overweigh their investments in hedge funds located in the same geographical areas and that funds with a stronger local bias exhibit superior performance. Local bias also gives rise to excess flow comovement and extreme return clustering within geographic areas. Overall, our results suggest that while funds of funds benefit from local advantages, their local bias also creates market segmentation that can destabilize the underlying hedge funds.


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