Let The Data Set You Free
Jan 27th, 2009 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Today's Post
With so much media attention focused on hedge funds over the past year, hypothesis, hunches, forecasts and conjectures about industry performance often morphed into legitimate “industry estimates” – no matter the source or methodology. We saw asset outflow estimates over the past year range from around $100 billion to over $600 billion. We saw attrition estimates ranging from 20% to 75%. And we saw 2008 return estimates ranging from -10% to well over -20%.
A former management consulting boss of mine used to say that when faced with such conflicting and confusing views, “Let the data set you free“.
Thankfully, with the dust settling on 2008, we’re beginning to get some solid data that will help free us all from the hodgepodge of guesses we have seen so far.
Credit Suisse’s Credit Suisse/Tremont Index group summarizes 2008 in a report released this week called: “One for the History Books: Hedge Fund Performance in 2008″. Click here to read the gory details (well worth the read). But if you’re in a rush, here are some of the highlights:
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