Barring a large and unexpected global or financial event, hedge funds are positioned for another year of solid growth as institutional investors seek to gain alternative exposures to traditional equity and fixed income markets, according to eVestment’s 2015 Hedge Fund Industry Outlook.
“We expect asset flows into hedge funds of at least between $90 billion and $110 billion in 2015, keeping hedge fund industry AUM above $3 trillion, a milestone the industry passed in mid 2014,” says the report’s author and eVestment vice president of research Peter Laurelli.
“We predict continued flows into equity focused strategies, although those flows will likely be below the 8.6% growth rate ($78 billion) year-to-date (YTD) seen in 2014,” Laurelli says.
Credit strategies will likely see growth similar to that of 2014, which is below its accelerated growth period of 2012-2013.
Multi-strategy hedge funds appear headed for another good year in 2015, with flows that may surpass the $48 billion YTD seen in 2014 as their diversity makes them a natural preference for long-term institutional assets coming from traditional strategies.
Macro and managed futures fund flows will likely continue to lag other major market segments with continued consolidation of AUM among the most institutional tailored strategies and further winnowing among small to mid-size systematic funds.
