Hedge funds: An industry reborn?

Markets ebb and flow, as do new investment ideas. Sometimes, the setting of a new trend might seem a new precedent but, all too often, it is just an old idea reinvigorated. Hedge funds are of that order. These abstract vehicles have been around for many a year and, of course, the basic and original premise was to hedge one's assets against the stock market falling. Long/short single strategy funds were popular through the 1970s and, indeed, today they can work well to hedge against a long-only portfolio of stocks. They came in and out of favour but grew very popular again through the ...