, Columnist
How Hedge Funds Lost Their Way and Why They’ll Come Back
Stock pickers appear ready to come out of the wilderness.
Hedge fends may be stranded no more.
Photographer: Natalie Behring/Getty Images
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There’s no shortage of shiny objects for investors to chase these days, from Bitcoin to SPACs to NFTs to pot stocks to GameStop and green energy. Notably missing from the list are equity hedge funds, and they have been for many years. But that may be about to change.
Equity hedge funds once ruled the investing world. During their heyday in the 1990s and 2000s, hedgies seemed to have a freakish gift for picking stocks, racking up big returns for their clients and themselves. Investors begged to get in, and only the richest and most connected among them got a nod, which made hedge funds all the more alluring.