A recent survey of investor’s alternative asset appetites over the next 12 months found the vast majority expect to increase their exposure to hedge funds throughout 2023.
Virtual capital introduction and conference organizer iConnections surveyed 555 allocators at the group’s flagship event in Miami in January. They found that while 56% said they would increase their exposure to hedge funds this year, with 44% saying they would boost their allocation by 10% or more.
The majority of respondents to the iConnections survey were single family offices, funds of funds and multi-family office allocators.
Investors across the board reported the highest level of conviction for hedge fund investments, with 69% of respondents saying they were either optimistic or very optimistic on the asset class. Less than one in 10 allocators held a pessimistic outlook on such strategies as active management makes a comeback.
Global macro and multi-strategy fund are expected to garner the greatest interest with positive responses elicited from 44.5% and 41.8% respectively. Next in line were credit long/short and equity long/short strategies.
Following hedge funds, private credit strategies were the next most popular arena for investors. Of those surveyed, 43.5% plan on increasing their net allocations to private credit by the end of 2023. Roughly half have no plans to change their current allocation to private credit, while 7.5% expecting to decrease their net position.
