Customer Reviews

Evaluating Hedge Fund and CTA Performance: Data Envelopment Analysis Approach + CD-ROM

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The book applies an operations management method - data envelopment analysis - to evaluate the performance of hedge funds and CTAs. DEA is a multi-variate non-parametric linear optimization method that quantifies the relationship between multiple inputs and outputs. The method has been widely used in operations management, but in finance, investment management and portfolio selection, its use is nascent.

The authors provide a rapid introduction to DEA. I found it shallow. For anyone needing a comprehensive, deeper, and more correct understanding the material, I would strongly recommend Zhu's "Quantitative Models for Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking", where the careful derivation of the various approaches offers a good understanding of the functional definitions of his approach. Chapters 6 to 9 provide the empirical analysis of performance using hedge fund and CTA data. The introductions are brief and most of the text is tables with results. I would prefer to have seen a deeper explanation of the methods and why particular methods are more appropriate for the selection of particular performance assessment. The multivariate approach is unique and potentially useful when optimizing a portfolio given certain sets of multi-collinear constraints. What this book lacks is a deeper analysis of this particular application.

The book comes with a CD that contains Zhu's DEA-Solver. This handy Excel add-in is useful in creating DEA analysis.

I have used this approach for portfolio performance evaluation and found Zhu's previously mentioned book more useful than this book. In my work, I wanted to find that combination of assets with the most efficient upper and lower partial moment distributions in a potential portfolio. It worked reasonably well, slightly better than a regression approach. For the novice DEA user, my recommendation is to use this book as an outline, but refer to Zhu when creating the analytical framework and applications.

I am always on the lookout for new quantitative methods to complement my portfolio optimizers. I found this approach pretty novel. It seems to do a good job at identifying efficient funds from the non-efficient ones. Great stuff, thanks guys.

The minute I got the book I went directly to the CD to do all my consulting work. Thanks to the CD I made over $125,000 US in one week consulting using this software and providing DEA scores of every hedge fund in my hedge fund database for a well-known fund of hedge funds. It paid off my mortgage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



DJ