The number of hedge funds and hedge funds of funds that report their assets and performance to one or more databases declined to 11,321 funds in 2013, down 9.2% from the previous year.
The number of hedge funds declined 6.1% to 7,524 reporting funds in 2013; commodity trading advisers/managed futures funds declined 19.3% to 1,723 funds; and hedge funds of funds dropped 10.5% to 2,074 funds, according to an analysis of 10 databases by industry researcher eVestment.
In its “Sizing the 2013 Hedge Fund and Fund of Hedge Fund Universe” report released Wednesday, eVestment researchers said the steep decline in the number of CTA/MF funds reporting 2013 results “may have to do with their underperformance in 2013, while part of the decline in the number of FoHF ceasing to report may have to do with the growth of bespoke portfolios, making reporting to commercial databases seem less practical.”
Despite the decline in the number of hedge funds, CTA/MF and hedge funds of funds in a year-to-year comparison, overall industry assets increased by 8.1% to $3.2 trillion as of Dec. 31. Hedge funds totaled $2.2 trillion or about 70% of total assets; CTA/MF funds, $432 billion or about 13% of the total; and hedge funds-of-funds assets equaled $495 billion or about 16% of aggregate assets.
