While 2014 was a solid year for U.S. equities and a banner one for U.S. government debt, hedge funds did little to justify the lofty fees charged to clients.
“While 2014 saw some high-profile successes, eVestment estimates of hedge funds’ average gains range from 2.9% to 4.6% for the first 11 months of the year, a period in which the Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed nearly 12%,” reports Teresa Rivas for Barron’s.
Still, investors are drawn to hedge funds. That includes supposedly savvy institutional investors that should know high fees erode returns over time. Perhaps they could be doing better with one of the exchange traded funds that aim to deliver hedge fund strategies to everyday investors, such as the IndexIQ Hedge Multi-Strategy ETF (NYSEArca: QAI).
QAI, the largest hedge fund strategy ETF, tries to reflect the risk-adjusted return characteristics of hedge funds through various hedge fund investment styles, such as long/short equity, global macro, market neutral, event driven, fixed-income arbitrage and emerging markets. [ETFs a Better way to Hedge Funds]
Obviously, what QAI does is critical information for prospective investors. So is what the fund does not do, meaning this is not one of the guru ETFs that track 13F filings from hedge fund legends, delivering a portfolio of hedge funds’ favorite stocks to regular investors.