Which Hedge Fund Styles Hedge Against Bad Times?

55 Pages Posted: 18 Aug 2013 Last revised: 24 Feb 2015

See all articles by Charles Cao

Charles Cao

Pennsylvania State University

David Rapach

Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Washington University in St. Louis

Guofu Zhou

Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School

Date Written: February 20, 2015

Abstract

We investigate an important question for institutional investors — namely, which hedge fund investing styles help to hedge against bad times? We define good versus bad times as (1) up and down equity market regimes derived from the 200-day moving average of the S&P 500 price index or (2) nonstressed and stressed financial market regimes determined endogenously using the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Financial Stress Index and threshold estimation. Our findings reveal that only a few hedge fund styles limit or alter their risk exposures to provide valuable hedges against bad times; in contrast, other styles remain substantially exposed to — or become more exposed to — particular risk factors and correspondingly suffer large losses during bad times. In the context of “balanced” 40-30-30 ortfolios that allocate across U.S. stocks, bonds, and individual hedge fund styles, we find that the Global Macro, Managed Futures, and Multi-Strategy styles provide large investors with especially valuable hedges against bad times.

Keywords: Asset-based style factors, Multifactor model, Regime switching, Financial stress,Threshold regression, Portfolio performance

JEL Classification: C24, C58, G11, G12

Suggested Citation

Cao, Charles and Rapach, David and Zhou, Guofu, Which Hedge Fund Styles Hedge Against Bad Times? (February 20, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2311464 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2311464

Charles Cao

Pennsylvania State University ( email )

Department of Finance
Smeal College of Business
University Park, PA 16802
United States
814-865-7891 (Phone)
814-865-3362 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.personal.psu.edu/qxc2/cao.html

David Rapach

Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta ( email )

1000 Peachtree Street N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30309-4470
United States

Washington University in St. Louis ( email )

One Brookings Drive
Campus Box 1133
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/slu.edu/daverapach

Guofu Zhou (Contact Author)

Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School ( email )

Washington University
Campus Box 1133
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
United States
314-935-6384 (Phone)
314-658-6359 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://apps.olin.wustl.edu/faculty/zhou/

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