Vestment have released their 2015 Hedge Fund Industry Outlook, with data-driven predictions of hedge fund trends for the upcoming year. A few key points include:
- Barring a large and unexpected global or financial event, hedge funds are positioned for another year of solid growth as institutional investors seek to gain alternative exposures to traditional equity and fixed income markets. eVestment expects asset flows into hedge funds of at least between $90 billion and $110 billion in 2015.
- eVestment predict continued flows into equity focused strategies, although those flows will likely be below the 8.6% growth rate ($78 billion) YTD seen in 2014.
- Credit strategies will likely see growth similar to that of2014, which is below its accelerated growth period of 2012-2013; however distressed, a subset of credit, is poised to see more than the $9 billion in inflows they experienced in 2014 as opportunities in certain market segments (US energy, Europe) present themselves.
- Multi-strategy hedge funds appear headed for another good year in 2015, with flows that may surpass the $48 billion YTD they saw in 2014 as their diversity makes them a natural preference for long-term institutional assets coming from traditional strategies.
- Macro and managed futures fund flows will likely continue to lag other major market segments with continued consolidation of AUM among the most institutional tailored strategies and further winnowing among small to mid-size systematic funds.