Abstract
This paper investigates the risk dynamics of hedge fund index returns
and the market timing abilities of hedge fund managers. The empirical evidence
shows that the systematic risk of all hedge fund index returns are highly
variable over time, implying that reported alpha returns as well as standard
risk management metrics are unreliable. In almost all cases volatility is
asymmetric and the range of estimated betas is rather large. The degree of
persistence is also very high. The results show that both systematic and
unsystematic risk of all hedge fund styles is time varying. Furthermore, there
is no evidence of successful market timing.