Hedge Funds Allocation: Case Study of a Swiss Institutional Investor

Abstract:     
Asset allocation advisers usually use the mean-variance framework to show the benefits of investing in hedge funds. We prove that this is not optimal and develop a method based on a modified Value-at-Risk model for non-normally distributed assets. We take the example of a Swiss pension fund investing part of its wealth in hedge funds. We also use a shortfall risk approach and show that investing in a diversified Hedge Funds portfolio is beneficial for lowering its modified Value-at-Risk. Then, we analyze several hedge fund strategies using local regression analysis. We obtain the payoffs of these strategies and compare them with the payoff of a standard Swiss pension fund portfolio. Finally, we compute for a representative hedge fund the price of the option like feature of the incentive fee and the premium paid to the investor by the fund for taking liquidity risk. We find that the return risk adjusted benefits of investing in hedge funds are reduced between 19% and 41% if we take into account the liquidity premium and the survivorship bias.

Keywords: Hedge funds allocation, hedge fund, hedge funds, portfolio, optimal, risk, value-at-risk, skewness, kurtosis, laurent, favre, financial economics, business economics

Working Paper Series