Hedge Fund Innovation

Westudyfirst-moveradvantagesinthehedgefundindustrybyclusteringhedge funds based on the type of assets and instruments they trade in, sector and investment focus, and fund details. We find that early entry in a cluster is associated with higher excess returns, longer survival, higher incentive fees and lower management fees compared to funds that arrive later. Moreover, the latest entrants have a high loading on the returns of the innovators, but with lower incentive fees, and higher management fees. Cross-sectional regressions show that the out-performance of innovating funds are declining with age. The results are robust to dierent parameters of clustering and backfill-bias, and are not driven by the possible existence of flagship and follow-on funds. Our results show that the reported characteristics of hedge funds can be used to infer strategy-related information and suggest that specific first-mover advantages exist in the hedge fund industry.