Seeking Alpha or Creating Beta? Charting the Rise of Hedge Fund-Based Financial Ecosystems

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes I am very grateful to Matthew Watson, James Brassett and one anonymous reviewer for excellent comments and advice on earlier versions of this paper. It should be noted that ecology is not the only source of useful metaphors for financial activity. See Erturk et al. (forthcoming 2010 Erturk, I., Leaver, A. and Williams, K. forthcoming 2010. Hedge Funds as 'War Machine': Making the Positions Work. New Political Economy, 15(1)Taylor & Francis Online , Google Scholar) for an interesting analysis of hedge funds understood through the military analogy of war. Although no detailed research exists on investable indices, see Schneeweis et al. 2005 Schneeweis, T., Karavas, V. and DuBose, R. 2005. "Investable Hedge Fund Indices: Creation and Management". In Managing Hedge Fund Risk, Edited by: Reynolds Parker, V. 237–255. London: Risk Books, Incisive Financial Publishing. Google Scholar for a very basic introduction. Additional informationNotes on contributorsChristopher HolmesWINNER OF THE 2008–09 NPE GRADUATE STUDENT PRIZE PAPER COMPETITION