A new study shows that activist short sellers, a collection of hedge funds and more private research groups, returned 12.5 percent of alpha in the past year and a half. Measuring alpha contribution through activist short sellers An investing model that follows Activist Shorts Research created a simple strategy to replicate the public trades of following the top 28 activist shorts to measure the alpha contribution. This is significant, particularly as many traditional hedge funds lose on the short end of their relative value trades. The long bias in these funds, typically near 80%, has been the primary alpha…
Activist Short Sellers Generate 12.5 Percent Alpha
Mark Melin
Mark Melin is an alternative investment practitioner whose specialty is recognizing the impact of beta market environment on a technical trading strategy. A portfolio and industry consultant, wrote or edited three books including High Performance Managed Futures (Wiley 2010) and The Chicago Board of Trade’s Handbook of Futures and Options (McGraw-Hill 2008) and taught a course at Northwestern University's executive education program.