What Is a Hedge Fund?

Abstract

This chapter aims to define hedge funds in a broad sense, listing and defining elements common to all such funds that explain why these investment products are grouped within what is called the hedge fund industry. The first section of this chapter gives a general definition of hedge funds. The second section describes the birth of the industry and its development over the years. The third focuses on the geographical development of hedge funds, and the fourth presents the big names of the industry. We end this chapter with a description of the future perspective of the industry, and we present a theory on its state of maturity.