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From Kirsten Bischoff, Opalesque New York:

Hedge funds' defensive positioning may have opened the industry to criticism as performance slightly lags equities indices during bull runs, but it has also helped snare the favor (and assets) of large financial institutions.

Hedge funds, which financial firm SEB expects will track slightly lower than equities in 2010, presents the strongest risk/return profile of all asset classes. "We predict that 2010 will be a somewhat better year for hedge funds than a normal year," says the firm, which is focusing most of their hedge fund investments in equity l/s, global macro and multi-strat managers (with a watchful eye on the event driven space, which they also expect to do well). ("The Debt Burden: Can the World Handle the Pressure?" May 2010)

After a period of time extending through 2009, where many investors shied away from the more complex strategies, firms like SEB and HSBC (which likes discretionary macro, distressed and event driven) are leading the way back into more robust portfolios that have exposures to all asset classes. Opalesque heard this position echoed in the recent Miami Roundtable when Rainford Knight, PhD and Managing Partner of the Florida Institute of Finance commented "Looking at the data we can identify a shift away from long/shor......................

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