Although hedge funds appeared in the 1950s, they did not attract much attention in the next thirty years. Until 1980s, with the development of financial liberalization, hedge funds had broader investment opportunities, and then entered a stage of rapid development. In 1990s, the threat of global inflation gradually decreased, financial instruments became more mature and diversified, and hedge funds entered a stage of vigorous development.
It is still uncertain which is the earliest hedge fund. During the great bull market in the United States in the 1920s, there were countless such investment tools specifically for the rich. One of the most famous is the Graham-Newman Partnership Fund founded by Benjamin Graham and Jerry Newman.
1923 The novel Memoirs of a Stock Market Maker describes a speculative tool called "asset pool" when recording Jesse Livermore's brilliant achievements, which is very similar to the so-called "hedge fund" in form and function. Before Livermore, bernard baruch also managed an "asset pool". Later, he set up another portal and made a fortune. He was called "the lone wolf on Wall Street" and became a politician.
In 2006, Warren Buffett declared in a letter to the American Museum of Finance that the Graham-Newman Partnership Fund in the 1920s was the earliest known hedge fund, but other funds may appear earlier.
Alfred W. Jones, a sociologist, writer and financial journalist, coined the term "hedge fund". In 1949, he also established the structure of hedge fund for the first time, which was widely praised. In order to neutralize the overall fluctuation of the market, Jones adopted the method of buying bullish assets and selling bearish assets to avoid risks. He called this operation of managing the risk exposure of overall market fluctuation "hedging".
This portfolio is a hedge fund. Jones is also the first fund manager to adopt the hedge investment strategy of capital leverage and risk diversification and collect performance compensation. 1966 Fortune magazine reported that although Jones charged a management fee of 20%, its fund performed better than the best mutual fund.
By 1968, there are nearly 200 hedge funds in total; 1969, the first hedge fund (FOHF) was born in Geneva.
In the economic recession of 1969-70 and the stock market crash of 1973- 1974, many early funds suffered heavy losses and closed down one after another. In 1970s, hedge funds usually focused on one strategy, and most fund managers adopted the long-short stock model. During the economic recession in 1970s, hedge funds were once ignored. It was not until the late 1980s that several successful funds were reported in the media before they returned to people's sight.
The big bull market in the 1990s created a batch of new wealth, and hedge funds blossomed everywhere. Traders and investors pay more attention to hedge funds because they emphasize the income distribution mode with consistent interests and the investment mode of "outperforming the market". In the next decade, the investment strategies of hedge funds will emerge one after another, including credit arbitrage, junk bonds, fixed-income securities, quantitative investment, multi-strategy investment and so on.
In the first decade of 2 1 century, hedge funds swept the world again. In 2008, the total assets held by global hedge funds reached 1.93 trillion US dollars. However, the credit crisis in 2008 hit hedge funds hard, and their value shrank. In addition, the liquidity of some markets has been blocked, and many hedge funds have begun to restrict investors' redemption.
20 1 1 April, the total assets managed by hedge funds bottomed out and are expected to reach 2 trillion US dollars. 20 1 1, 1, the largest 225 hedge fund companies in the United States have 1.3 trillion dollars, of which Bridgewater Associates is the largest with assets of 58.9 billion dollars. 20 1 1 The top five hedge fund companies are Bridgewater Associates ($58.9 billion), Man Group ($39.2 billion) and Paulson &; Company (35 1 billion dollars), Brevan Howard (3 1 billion dollars) and och-ziff (29.4 billion dollars). On February 20 1 1, 6 1% of global hedge fund investments came from institutions.
On May 6th, 20 15, Hong Lei, vice president of China Asset Management Association, said that by the end of April of 20 15, there were 6.714 hedge funds in operation in China, with assets reaching 873,654.38+0.5 billion yuan.
Hedging is an act or strategy aimed at reducing risks. The common form of hedging is trading in the market or assets.
In order to hedge the risk of another market or asset, for example, a company buys foreign exchange options to hedge the risk brought by the fluctuation of spot exchange rate to its operation. People who hedge are called hedgers or hedgers.