New York (HedgeCo.Net) In a recent paper produced by the Alternative Investment Management Association, the association states that hedge funds have made investors about $1.5 trillion over the last 10 years and that is net of management fees. AIMA also pointed out in the paper that the gains over the ten-year period included 2008 which was the worst year for the hedge fund industry. The accumulated losses that year were estimated at $306 billion.

The paper is a marketing campaign aimed at pension fund managers and a rebuttal to the move by the California Public Employees Retirement System to pull its $4 billion investment in hedge funds. CalPERS is the largest U.S. pension fund and when they made the announcement that they were exiting the hedge fund space it was headline news.

Between the announcement from CalPERS and countless numbers of articles about how the hedge fund industry lagged the S&P 500 in 2014, AIMA is using the paper to go on the offensive.

Between 2013 and 2014 combined, the S&P 500 gained 44.3% and the index gained ground in 18 of the 24 months. During a strong bullish period like the one over the last two years, hedged strategies are more likely to lag the index than it is when the market is volatile or moving down.

Rick Pendergraft
Investment Analyst
HedgeCoVest