An Introduction to Hedge Funds

This report was originally written as an industry white paper on Hedge Funds. This paper gives an overview to Hedge Funds, with a focus on risk management issues. We define and explain the general characteristics of Hedge Funds, their main investment strategies and the risk models employed. We address the problems in Hedge Fund modelling, survey current Hedge Funds available on the market and those that have been withdrawn. Finally, we summarise the supporting and opposing arguments for Hedge Fund usage. A unique value of this paper, compared to other Hedge Fund literature freely available on the internet, is that this review is fully sourced from academic references (such as peer reviewed journals) and is thus a bona fide study. This paper will be of interest to: Hedge Fund and Mutual Fund Managers, Quantitative Analysts, "Front" and "Middle" office banking functions e.g. Treasury Management, Regulators concerned with Hedge Fund Financial Risk Management, Private and Institutional Investors, Academic Researchers in the area of Financial Risk Management and the general Finance community.