Abstract
I investigate whether hedge funds that supply liquidity earn superior returns. Using transaction data, I find that hedge funds following short-term contrarian strategies (i.e., liquidity suppliers) earn significantly higher returns on their equity trades and holdings. Similarly, using commercial databases, I find that hedge funds with greater exposure to a liquidity provision factor earn significantly higher excess returns and Sharpe ratios. The superior performance of liquidity-supplying hedge funds arises from strategies that are more complex than mechanical short-term reversal strategies. For example, among stocks with similar past returns, liquidity-supplying funds are more likely to trade against stocks heavily traded by constrained mutual funds and less likely to trade against stocks heavily traded by unconstrained mutual funds. The outperformance of liquiditysupplying funds is also concentrated in periods of low funding liquidity, suggesting that less-binding financial constraints contribute to their superior returns.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3288-3312 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| Journal | Management Science |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2017 INFORMS.
Funding
This paper was previously circulated under the title “How Do Hedge Fund “Stars” Create Value? Evidence from Their Daily Trades.” The author thanks Allison Keane, Marsha Tracer, and ANcerno Ltd. for providing institutional trading data. The author thanks Daniel Moevius, Tyson Van Alfen, and Emma Xu for research assistance. The author also thanks department editor Lauren Cohen, the associate editor, two referees, Vikas Agarwal, Adam Aiken, Melanie Cao, Chris Clifford, Steve Dimmock, Jesse Ellis, Will Gerken, Clifton Green, Bil-iana Guner, Byoung-Hyoun Hwang, Petri Jylhä, Manel Kam-moun, Andrew Karoyli, Sugata Ray, Kalle Rinne, Jay Shanken, Matti Suominen, Yue Tang, and Rob Tumarkin, as well as seminar participants at the American Finance Association Meetings, the Third Luxembourg Asset Management Summit, the Seventh Paris Hedge Fund Research Conference, the Liquidity Risk in Asset Management Conference at Rotman, Georgia State University, Massey University (Albany), Massey University (Manawatu), Temple University, the University of Georgia, the University of Kentucky, the University of New South Wales, the University of Technology Sydney, and the University of Waterloo for helpful comments. The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the BNP Paribas Hedge Fund Centre at Singapore Management University.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| BNP Paribas Hedge Fund Centre at Singapore Management University |
Keywords
- Fund performance
- Hedge funds
- Liquidity provision
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Strategy and Management
- Management Science and Operations Research