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By Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London:

Last year, hedge funds lost on average 20%. But mutual funds lost around twice as much. However, there is a marked trend towards a convergence between the two styles and structures, particularly in the U.S.

Mutual funds have been under pressure for a while, what with underperformance and competition from the better-yielding alternative investment funds, and the cheaper ETFS and other index funds. So they are starting to use the clever tools that came out of the investment world's laboratories, namely: alternative investment funds, to generate higher returns. So the retail market can now access such tools as shorting, leverage (although not as much as with hedge funds due to regulations), derivatives, etc. for less fees, more transparency, better liquidity and more regulatory oversight.

Naik, Agarwal and Boyson, in their 2007 working paper entitled "Hedge Funds for Retail Investors? An Examination of Hedged Mutual Funds" (Hedge Fund Centre, London Business School) predicted that "...hedged mutual funds will play an increasingly important role in the field of investment management as they provide access to hedge-fund like strategies with the fee structure, liquidity, and regulatory requirements of mutual funds."

Next cycle? According to a Greenwich, CT based consultancy firm ......................

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