This paper documents significant momentum in a comprehensive sample of 81,491 U.S. corporate bonds with both transaction and dealer-quote data from 1973 to 2011. Momentum is driven by noninvestment grade (NIG) bonds. Momentum profits have increased over time, along with the growth of this...

Hedge funds significantly reduced their equity holdings during the recent financial crisis. In 2008:Q3----Q4, hedge funds sold about 29% of their aggregate portfolio. Redemptions and margin calls were the primary drivers of selloffs. Consistent with forced deleveraging, the selloffs took place...

For funds with high incentives and more opportunities to inflate returns, we find that (i) returns during December are significantly higher than returns during the rest of the year, even after controlling for risk in both the time series and the cross-section; and (ii) this December spike is...

This article characterizes the systematic risk exposures of hedge funds using buy-and-hold and option-based strategies. Our results show that a large number of equity-oriented hedge fund strategies exhibit payoffs resembling a short position in a put option on the market index and therefore bear...