Hedge funds are positioned for their best average returns since 2014 in the wake of a three-year winning streak that “adds welcome color to an asset management industry that’s been threatening to fade to gray,” according to a recent article in Bloomberg.
If equities continue this trajectory, the article notes, the “hedge fund industry is poised to deliver a double-digit performance in 2021.”
The hedge fund comeback has reportedly enticed investors to “resume allocating cash to the asset class after three scarring years of withdrawals worth a total of $192 billion.” Specifically, hedge funds have drawn new cash of $28.7 billion in the first half of the year, growing total assets under management to more than $3.5 trillion (data from eVestment).
The article stipulates that not every hedge fund is thriving, however, and that “performance above and beyond the beta available from rising equity markets will be the key to whether the hedge fund industry an hang onto this newly regained trust of investors.”