PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Nelson Lacey
AU  - Qiang Bu
TI  - On Understanding Bear Market Funds
AID  - 10.3905/jai.2010.13.2.035
DP  - 2010 Sep 30
TA  - The Journal of Alternative Investments
PG  - 35--46
VI  - 13
IP  - 2
4099  - https://pm-research.com/content/13/2/35.short
4100  - https://pm-research.com/content/13/2/35.full
AB  - Despite poor performance, bear market funds have been growing rapidly in recent years. The authors find that while bear funds exhibit timing ability, this surprisingly does not translate into enhanced return performance. They also find that bear funds tend to be risk-seeking at a time when market volatility is high. The results are consistent with viewing these funds not in the more traditional context of return maximization, but instead in the context of risk management. In other words, bear market funds decrease return volatility of the fund family at the cost of a slightly lower fund-family return.TOPICS: Real assets/alternative investments/private equity, risk management, performance measurement, financial crises and financial market history