After studying the impact of fund size and fund flows
on the subsequent performance of funds of hedge funds, the authors find that
funds with more assets tend to produce higher returns at lower levels of
volatility, resulting in superior risk-adjusted performance. Across the majority
of the size spectrum, a positive concave relationship exists between fund asset
size and performance, while a negative correlation relationship exists between
asset size and standard deviation. The smallest 25% of funds of funds
underperformed the largest 75% of funds of funds by more than 2% annually from
January 1995 to November 2006. This performance differential arises because a
higher portion of the smallest funds deliver lower alpha, causing them to
subsequently fail. Past good performers attract new inflows, but strong inflows
adversely affect the subsequent performance of previously top-performing funds.
In contrast, the top-performing and largest funds with below average asset flows
perform significantly better than top funds with above average flows.