London - the growing rival to New York in hedge funds business

Filed in archive Hedgetalk on September 4, 2006

Across the world there are estimated more than 8000 hedge-fund managers. The assets under their management sum up to more than $1.1 trillion. And most of these people and money are concentrated in the both global capitals of the hedge fund industry - New York and London.

A new article in The Economist "The Capitals of capital" is dealing with an interesting trend in the industry: London becomes a booming hedge fund city and the main rival to New York.

The article unveils interesting facts about different investment strategies and habits in London and New York.

"Data from Hedge Fund Research, a consultancy, show that in the second quarter, a share-hedging strategy involving both long and short sales was the most popular in America and Britain. But American-based managers were more likely also to trade "event-driven" strategies, based on unexpected occurrences such as takeovers. British-based funds, meanwhile, were more likely to trade in emerging markets and fixed-income."

In 2005 the London hedge funds have returned - amazingly - almost twice the return of their American counterparts - on average 16,5%.

There are also some striking differences in the regulation of hedge funds on both sides of the Atlantic.

It' an exciting race...