ETFs? Nope. There are just about 1,800 of them - with a new, much-needed
Social Media Sentiment Index ETF on the way (whew!) - controlling only $3 trillion. You already know about the 7,700 '40 Act funds and the few hundred remaining CEFs are hardly a blip (with apologies to RiverNorth, to whom they're a central opportunity).
No, I mean the
other 24,725 private funds, the existence of which is revealed in unintelligible detail in a recent SEC staff report entitled
Private Fund Statistics, 4th Quarter 2014 (October 2015). That roster includes:
8,625 hedge funds, up by 1100 since the start of 2013
8,407 private equity funds, up by 1400 in that same period
4,058 "other" private funds
2,386 Section 4 private equity funds
1,789 real estate funds
1,541 qualifying hedge funds
1,327 securitized asset funds
504 venture capital funds
69 liquidity funds
49 Section 3 liquidity funds, these latter two being the only categories in decline
The number of private funds was up by 4,200 between Q1/2013 and Q4/2014 with about 200 new advisers entering the market. They have $10 trillion in gross assets and $6.7 trillion in net assets. (Nope, I don't know what gross assets are.) SEC-registered funds own about 1% of the shares of those private funds.
If Table 20 is to be credited, almost
no hedge
ever uses a high-frequency trading strategy. (You'll have to imagine me at my desk, nodding appreciatively.)
Sadly, the report explains nothing. You get tables of technical detail with nary a definition nor an explanation in sight. "Asset Weighted-Average Qualifying Hedge Fund Investor and Portfolio Liquidity" assures that that fund liquidity at seven days is about 58% while investor liquidity in that same period is about 15%. Not a word anywhere about what that means. An appendix defines about 10 terms, no one of which is related to their data reports.
As ever,
David
Comments
From a quick glance at the holdings, it looks like they might be overweight junk corporate credit, which would more or less account for the underperformance. These are supposedly the credit/cef strategic experts -- did they not adjust an iota for the clear weakness in HY? Or are they just napping while they collect their investors' high E.R.s?
Sicavs is an old world term please enlighten on your use here in the new world??
A SICAV, société d'investissement à capital variable, is one of two common forms of mutual fund in Europe. It's equivalent to an open-end fund. Seafarer runs a SICAV, roughly translated as Rising Asia. A SICAF is structured like a closed-end one. No idea at all of how many there are, though.
David
Number (para starting 'choice'):
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/47d959ee-57b1-11dc-8c65-0000779fd2ac.html#axzz3p9v58NhV