Several studies have put forward that hedge fund returns exhibit a nonlinear relationship with equity market returns, captured either through constructed portfolios of traded options or piece-wise linear regressions. This paper provides a statistical methodology to unveil such nonlinear features with respect to returns on benchmark risk portfolios. We estimate a portfolio of options that best approximates the returns of a given hedge fund, account for this search in the statistical testing of the nonlinearity, and provide a reliable test for a positive valuation of the fund. We find that not all fund categories exhibit significant nonlinearities, and that only a few strategies provide significant value to investors. Our methodology helps identify individual funds that provide value in an otherwise poorly performing category.

Replication data for software review published in Journal of Applied Econometrics. Paper published online January 7, 2010.