Forbes – So you want to be a millionaire. OK, maybe you already are one. But are you still investing in hedge funds?
As an investor, last year certainly wasn’t a year to remember. Hedge funds notched an average 8.03% return for the year–better than the 4.9% returned by the S&P 500index and better than the -0.61% logged by the Dow Jones industrial average, according to data complied by Hennessee Group.
So-called long/short equity hedge fund managers had average gains of 6.98% for the year, according to the data from Hennessee, which advises wealthy individuals andinstitutions on where to direct their hedge fund investments.
But what the data do not do is compare hedge fund performance with that of mutual funds–those comparatively boring investment pools for ordinary mortals. According toMorningstar, some 4,757 actively managed stock funds beat the broad Hennessee hedge fund index and returned performance better than 8%.
