The impetus of our aims is the belief that we are doing what hedge funds should be doing – generating risk-controlled and uncorrelated returns to traditional asset classes. When investors choose to invest in Mutual funds, they diversify through geography, sector and manager selection but ultimately seek to gain directional exposure to an underlying asset - traditionally equities, bonds or real estate. Hedge funds were supposed to be different. Their raison d'etre was to provide uncorrelated returns to traditional asset classes.
Now, however, hedge funds have become increasingly correlated to the underlying asset classes they trade. Equity long/short strategies in the U.S. for instance, are correlated to U.S. equity markets, fixed-income hedge funds to interest rate directions and so on. This basic change in approach has resulted in an explosion in hedge fund categories not only by underlying asset class but also geography - fixed income Europe, fixed income ex-japan, equity long/short, Asia-focused, sector-based, event-driven etc. We believe that none of these categories should matter and hedge funds should deliver absolute and uncorrelated returns. The assets used to deliver those returns should be immaterial.
Our aim is not to provide exposure to a particular region or industry, but to generate consistent, absolute and uncorrelated returns. Since inception, that’s exactly what we’ve done.