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Hedge Fund Market in US Size 2025-2029

The US hedge fund market size is forecast to increase by USD 738 billion at a CAGR of 8.1% between 2024 and 2029.

US Hedge Fund Market is experiencing significant growth due to increasing investor interest in alternative investment options. This trend is driven by the desire for higher returns and risk diversification, leading to a surge in assets under management. Furthermore, technological advancements are transforming the hedge fund industry, enabling companies to offer innovative solutions and improve operational efficiency. However, the market is not without challenges. Regulatory constraints continue to pose significant obstacles, with stringent regulations governing fund operations, investor protection, and transparency.
Compliance with these regulations requires substantial resources and expertise, presenting a significant challenge for hedge fund managers. Companies seeking to capitalize on market opportunities and navigate these challenges effectively must stay informed of regulatory developments and invest in robust compliance frameworks. Additionally, leveraging technology to streamline operations and enhance transparency can help hedge funds remain competitive and meet investor demands.

What will be the Size of the Hedge Fund Market in US during the forecast period?

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US hedge funds market activities and evolving patterns continue to unfold, shaping the industry's landscape. Hedge funds employ various strategies, such as quantitative methods, algorithmic trading, and relative value strategies, to manage risk and generate alpha. Investor relations play a crucial role in attracting and retaining capital from high-net-worth individuals, family offices, pension funds, and institutional investors. Fund of funds and multi-strategy funds offer diversification, while big data analytics and alternative data inform investment decisions. Machine learning and artificial intelligence enhance risk management and performance measurement. Regulatory compliance and transparency are essential components of hedge fund operations, ensuring liquidity and mitigating drawdowns.
Market dynamics are influenced by various factors, including hedge fund leverage, volatility, and capacity. Hedge fund managers must navigate these complexities to deliver competitive returns, employing due diligence and effective fee structures. Hedge fund distribution channels, such as conferences and sales efforts, facilitate access to new investors. The hedge fund market is a continually evolving ecosystem, where technology, regulatory requirements, and investor expectations shape the industry's future. Hedge fund liquidation and exit strategies, performance fees, and risk appetite are critical considerations for hedge fund managers and investors alike. Ultimately, the hedge fund industry's success hinges on its ability to adapt and innovate in a rapidly changing financial landscape.

How is this Hedge Fund in US Industry segmented?

The hedge fund in US industry research report provides comprehensive data (region-wise segment analysis), with forecasts and estimates in 'USD billion' for the period 2025-2029, as well as historical data from 2019-2023 for the following segments.

Type

  Offshore
  Domestic
  Fund of funds


Method

  Long and short equity
  Event driven
  Global macro
  Others


End-user

  Institutional
  Individual


Fund Structure

  Small (
  Medium (USD500M-USD2B)
  Large (>USD2B)


Investor Type

  Institutional
  High-Net-Worth Individuals


Geography

  North America

    US

By Type Insights

The offshore segment is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period.

The offshore segment of the hedge fund market in the US houses funds that are managed or marketed by American firms but are domiciled and operated in offshore jurisdictions. These funds, located in financial centers known for their favorable regulatory environments, tax treatment, and legal infrastructure, offer investors tax efficiency through lower or zero taxation on investment income, capital gains, and distributions. The reduced regulatory burden in offshore jurisdictions enables greater flexibility in fund operations, investment strategies, and disclosure obligations, making offshore hedge funds an appealing choice for tax-conscious investors. Portfolio construction, risk management, and hedge fund allocation strategies are crucial elements for these funds, with relative value and long-short equity strategies commonly employed.

Performance fees and management fees are the primary revenue sources for hedge fund managers, while family offices and institutional investors provide significant hedge fund capital. Regulatory compliance and due diligence are essential for investors, ensuring transparency and performance measurement. Hedge fund research, risk appetite, and investor r

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Consistent growth in assets under management (AUM) has immensely benefited the Hedge Funds industry over the past five years. Industry servicers invest capital they receive from a variety of investor types across a broad range of asset classes and investment strategies. Operators collect a fee for the amount of money they manage for these clients and a percentage of gains they are able to generate on invested assets. This business model helped industry revenue climb at a CAGR of 7.7% to $127.4 billion over the past five years, including an expected incline of 5.7% in 2024. Despite economic volatility in 2020 due to the pandemic lowering interest rates, an incline in the value of stocks in 2020 positively affected many hedge funds. The S&P 500 climbed 16.3% in 2020, which helped increase AUM. Although industry professionals question the relevance of benchmarking hedge fund returns against equity performance, given that hedge funds rely on a range of instruments other than stocks, the industry's poor performance relative to the S&P 500 has begun to raise concern from some investors. These trends have affected the industry's structure, with the traditional 2.0 and 20.0 structure of a flat fee on total AUM and a right-to-earned profit deteriorating into a 1.4 and 16.0 arrangement. As a result, industry profit, measured as earnings before interest and taxes, has been hindered over the past five years. Industry revenue is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.1% to $148.5 billion over the next five years. AUM is forecast to continue increasing at a consistent rate, partly due to the diversification benefits that hedge funds provide. Nonetheless, increased regulation stemming from the global financial crisis and an escalating focus on the industry's tax structure has the potential to harm industry profit. Further economic uncertainty stemming from heightened inflation and persistently high interest rates is anticipated to dampen any large-scale growth for the industry as more hedge funds take a hawkish approach in their investment portfolio moving forward. Regardless, the number of new hedge funds is forecast to trend with AUM and revenue over the next five years.

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The United Kingdom Hedge Funds Market is Segmented by Investment Strategy (Equity Long/Short, Global Macro, Event-Driven, and More), Investor Type (Pension Funds, Insurance Companies, and More), Distribution Channel (Direct Sales, Placement Agents/Intermediaries, and More), Fund Domicile & Structure (UK-Onshore, Offshore, Cayman, and More), and Region. The Market Forecasts are Provided in Value (USD).

The United States was the leading country in terms of hedge funds assets under management in 2019. Hedge fund managers based in the United States had assets under management worth around *** trillion U.S. dollars. The United Kingdom followed with the second highest assets under management, reaching *** billion U.S. dollars. Despite a sharp contraction during the 2008 financial crisis, the total value of assets managed by hedge funds worldwide increased considerably between 1997 and 2020.

How does hedge funds work?

Hedge funds are alternative investments in which a manager employs a wide set of different strategies in the attempt to provide investors with active returns using pooled funds. The strategies available to hedge fund managers are many, ranging from riskier ones, such as merger arbitrage, to other strategies aimed at reducing market exposure, such as the market-neutral one. Hedge funds require a relatively high initial investment, and they are typically accessible only to accredited investors, such as high net worth individuals (HNIs), pension funds, insurance companies, and banks.

Crypto hedge funds

As opposed to traditional hedge funds, crypto hedge funds pool capital from investors into assets focusing entirely or partially on cryptocurrencies. Currently, the main focus areas of crypto hedge funds are Ethereum and Bitcoin, and a significant correlation was found between the number of new crypto hedge funds launched and the price of the latter. The average assets under management of crypto hedge funds increased considerably since 2019, reaching a value of almost ** million dollars as of 2020.

As of 2024, there were roughly over ***** equity long/short hedge funds operating worldwide. These are hedge funds that take both long and short positions in investments. While multi-strategy hedge funds were among the top performers by net annualized return, these hedge fund types formed a lower portion of the hedge fund pool, with *** being operational in 2024. Growth of the hedge fund industry The hedge fund industry has experienced steady growth since its boom in the 1990s. Despite facing setbacks including that of the 2008 fiscal crisis, the industry has rebounded, managing assets valued at over ************* U.S. dollars in 2024. This continued success has been partly due to the industry's resilience and adaptability, adjusting investment strategies and portfolio holdings to changing market dynamics. How do different fund strategies impact performance? Hedge fund performance can vary considerably depending on the investment strategy adopted. Those following a multi-strategy approach achieved the highest net performance over one-, three-, and five-year periods. This strategy allocates funds across multiple sub-strategies and asset classes, resulting in highly diverse portfolios with a one-year median net performance exceeding ** percent in 2024. Conversely, arbitrage strategies, which leverage mispricing in equity shares to generate maximum returns, delivered the ************* net returns over a one-year period in 2024.

As of June 17, 2024, the most shorted stock was for, the American holographic technology services provider, MicroCloud Hologram Inc., with 66.64 percent of their total float having been shorted. This is a change from mid-January 2021, when video game retailed GameStop had an incredible 121.07 percent of their available shares in a short position. In effect this means that investors had 'borrowed' more shares (with a future promise to return them) than the total number of shares available for public trading. Owing to this behavior of professional investors, retail investors enacted a campaign to drive up the stock price of Gamestop, leading to losses of billions when investors had to repurchase the stock they had borrowed. At this time, a similar – but less effective – social media campaign was also carried out for the stock price of cinema operator AMC, and the price of silver. What is short selling? Short selling is essentially where an investor bets on a share price falling by: borrowing a number of shares selling these shares while the price is still high; purchasing the same number again once the price falls; then returning the borrowed shares at a profit. Of course, a profit will only be made if the share price does fall; should the share price rise the investor will then need to purchase the shares back at a higher price, and thus incur a loss. Short selling can lead to some very large profits in a short amount of time, with Tesla stock generating over one billion dollars in short sell profits during the first week of March 2020 alone, owing to the financial crash caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, owing to the short-term, opportunistic nature of short selling, these returns look less impressive when considered as net profits from short sell positions over the full year. The risks of short selling Short selling carries greater risks than traditional investments, and for this reason financial advisors often recommend against this strategy for ‘retail’ (i.e. non-professional) investors. The reason for this is that losses from short selling are potentially uncapped, whereas losses from traditional investments are limited to the initial cost. For example, if someone purchases 100 dollars of shares, the maximum they can lose is the 100 dollars the spent on those shares. However, say someone borrows 100 dollars of shares instead, betting on the price falling. If these shares are then sold for 100 dollars but the price subsequently rises, the losses could greatly exceed the initial investment should the price rise to, say, 500 dollars. The risks of short selling can be seen by looking again at Tesla, with the company causing the greatest losses over 2020 from short selling at over 40 billion U.S. dollars.

The total global net assets of mutual funds registered in the United States amounted to approximately 25.5 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023, compared to around 5.53 trillion U.S. dollars in 1998. Mutual funds - additional information Mutual funds are investment funds in which the capital is pooled from a number of different investors and then used to buy securities such as stocks, bonds or money market instruments. Although investing in mutual funds, rather than direct investment in individual securities, still presents a certain degree of risk, it has become more and more common practice around the world. One of the biggest advantages of this type of investment is the fact that the fund assets are managed by professionals, who aim to eliminate some of the risk involved in investing in individual stocks and bonds through diversification of assets. As of 2022, there were almost 7,400 mutual funds domiciled in the United States. There are four main types of mutual funds, categorized by the nature of their principal investments, namely: stock or equity funds (whether domestic or international), bond or fixed income funds, money market funds and hybrid funds. In 2022, domestic equity funds were the most popular category in the United States, representing 46 percent of all mutual fund and ETF assets.

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As of January 2025, the Vanguard Group ranked ****** among global fund managers by assets under management (AUM). Rounding out the top *****, Charles Schwab ranked *****, managing fund assets totaling **** trillion U.S. dollars. BlackRock was the ******* fund manager, managing fund assets exceeding ***** trillion U.S. Types of investment funds. Investment funds are an important part of financial planning and investing. There are several different types of investment funds offered by fund managers, each with their own purpose and asset types. Mutual funds pool money from many investors and use that money to purchase a portfolio of stocks, bonds, and other securities. Index funds are a type of mutual fund that tracks a market index, like the S&P 500. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are a type of mutual fund, that is continuously traded on a stock exchange. ETFs often track market indexes or sectors. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) provide both retail and institutional investors with exposure to income-generating real estate assets such as office buildings, apartments and hotels, without having to fully invest in an individual property. The benefits of investment funds. The main advantage of investment funds is that they provide instant portfolio diversification. Rather than choosing just a few stocks or bonds, funds allow you to invest in a wide variety of different securities in one purchase. This helps reduce risk, as poor performance of one holding has less impact on the overall fund. Funds also provide access to professional management and research. Managers can take advantage of opportunities and insights that an individual investor may not have the ability to leverage. Finally, funds offer convenience. Investors won't be required to constantly rebalance portfolios. While costs and fees are a consideration, investment funds can be an excellent hands-off way for both retail and institutional investors to benefit from the market while spreading risk over many asset classes and securities.

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