Hedge Fund Index Rules and Construction

Abstract

A Hedge Fund Index is very useful for tracking the performance of hedge fund investments, especially the timing of fund redemption. This paper presents a methodology for constructing a hedge fund index that is more like a quantitative fund of fund, rather than a weighted sum of a number of early replicable market indices, which are re-balanced periodically. The constructed index allows hedge funds to directly hedge their exposures to index-linked products. That is important given that hedge funds are an asset class with reduced transparency, and the returns are traditionally difficult to replicate using liquid instruments.