S&P comes under fire for structure of hedge fund and Barra indices

The S&P Hedge Fund Index and the S&P Barra Index have been criticised by Mellon and Vanguard respectively for failing to give a good indication of the fund sectors they cover. The accusation is that the hedge fund indices hold too few funds to be meaningful, while the definitions of value and growth used in the Barra Index are not broad enough. S&P has refuted the claims. Derek Stewart, director of Mellon Global Alternative Investments, has claimed that the S&P Hedge fund indices do not give a reliable guide for hedge fund performance because the total universe is too small. With abo...