Hedge Fund Reallocations Show Investors Balancing Risks

Hedge funds saw their first month of net outflows in December after five straight months of inflows, but with steady growth, especially for long/short equity strategies, it doesn’t look like people are moving out of hedge funds. Instead, the net outflows (and some sector specific inflows) look like a round of year-end asset reallocation that could give us a hint of what investors expect in 2014.

After five consecutive months of positive asset flows; during which the industry witnessed net allocations of $70.2 billion, the month of December saw a sharp detraction from this trend with investors withdrawing a net of $8.6 billion from the hedge fund industry. Meanwhile all regional mandates registered their fourth consecutive month of positive...