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Change You Can Believe In? Hedge Fund Data Revisions

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  • Patton, Andrew
  • Streatfield, Michael

Abstract

We analyze the reliability of voluntary disclosures of financial information, focusing on widely-employed publicly available hedge fund databases. Tracking changes to statements of historical performance recorded at different points in time between 2007 and 2011, we find that historical returns are routinely revised. These revisions are not merely random or corrections of earlier mistakes; they are partly forecastable by fund characteristics. Moreover, funds that revise their performance histories significantly and predictably underperform those that have never revised, suggesting that unreliable disclosures constitute a valuable source of information for current and potential investors. These results speak to current debates about mandatory disclosures by financial institutions to market regulators.

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  • Patton, Andrew & Streatfield, Michael, 2012. "Change You Can Believe In? Hedge Fund Data Revisions," CEPR Discussion Papers 8898, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8898
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    Cited by:

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    3. Yang, Fan & Havranek, Tomas & Irsova, Zuzana & Novak, Jiri, 2022. "Hedge Fund Performance: A Quantitative Survey," EconStor Preprints 260612, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    4. Guillermo Baquero & Marno Verbeek, 2022. "Hedge Fund Flows and Performance Streaks: How Investors Weigh Information," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(6), pages 4151-4172, June.
    5. Gregoriou, Greg N. & Racicot, François-Éric & Théoret, Raymond, 2021. "The response of hedge fund tail risk to macroeconomic shocks: A nonlinear VAR approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 843-872.
    6. Racicot, François-Éric & Théoret, Raymond, 2018. "Multi-moment risk, hedging strategies, & the business cycle," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 637-675.
    7. Sinclair, Andrew J., 2023. "Do prime brokers intermediate capital?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    8. François-Éric Racicot & Raymond Théoret, 2022. "Tracking market and non-traditional sources of risks in procyclical and countercyclical hedge fund strategies under extreme scenarios: a nonlinear VAR approach," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-56, December.
    9. Aiken, Adam L. & Kilic, Osman & Reid, Sean, 2016. "Can hedge funds time global equity markets? Evidence from emerging markets," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 2-11.
    10. Arpit Gupta & Kunal Sachdeva, 2019. "Skin or Skim? Inside Investment and Hedge Fund Performance," NBER Working Papers 26113, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Auer, Benjamin R. & Marohn, Marcel, 2024. "Computational dynamics of information ratios," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    12. Adam L. Aiken & Osman Kilic & Sean Reid, 2016. "Can hedge funds time global equity markets? Evidence from emerging markets," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 2-11, April.
    13. Russell Jame, 2018. "Liquidity Provision and the Cross Section of Hedge Fund Returns," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3288-3312, July.
    14. Mark Grinblatt & Gergana Jostova & Lubomir Petrasek & Alexander Philipov, 2020. "Style and Skill: Hedge Funds, Mutual Funds, and Momentum," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(12), pages 5505-5531, December.
    15. Bali, Turan G. & Weigert, Florian, 2021. "Hedge funds and the positive idiosyncratic volatility effect," CFR Working Papers 21-01, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    16. Gordon Cookson & Tim Jenkinson & Howard Jones & Jose Vicente Martinez, 2022. "Virtual Reality? Investment Consultants’ Claims About Their Own Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(11), pages 8301-8318, November.
    17. Qifei Zhu, 2020. "The Missing New Funds," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(3), pages 1193-1204, March.
    18. Hao Liang & Lin Sun & Melvyn Teo, 2022. "Responsible Hedge Funds [Role of managerial incentives and discretion in hedge fund performance]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1585-1633.
    19. Kosowski, Robert & Joenväärä, Juha & Kaupila, Mikko & Tolonen, Pekka, 2019. "Hedge Fund Performance: Are Stylized Facts Sensitive to Which Database One Uses?," CEPR Discussion Papers 13618, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Yao, Juan & Wu, Bochen & Gao, Yang, 2021. "Death and the life hereafter: A study of the subsequent hedge funds," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    21. Vikas Agarwal & Yan Lu & Sugata Ray, 2016. "Under One Roof: A Study of Simultaneously Managed Hedge Funds and Funds of Hedge Funds," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(3), pages 722-740, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Asymmetric information; Disclosure; Finance regulation; Hedge funds; Performance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality

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