Asked in the late 1970s how he saw the outlook for the specialist investment vehicles that he is credited with inventing, Alfred Winslow Jones was no optimist. “The hedge fund doesn’t have a terrific future,” he said gloomily.
Hedge funds’ investment styles were too easily copied, and the inefficiencies on which they thrived too swiftly eroded. They would never, Jones thought, become a big part of the investment scene.
Were he alive today, Jones would be astonished at the resilience of his creation. No longer the preserve of wealthy private investors, hedge funds are part of the mainstream, managing a stunning $2.5tn, much of it from pension funds. This far exceeds their $1.9tn pre-crisis peak.