Hedge Funds And The Definition Challenge — Part 1

"This article was published originally in the Commercial Law Practitioner and it is the copyright of Thomson Round Hall"

Introduction

Seldom is an entire industry defined by default but in the case of the "alternative investment" industry this has proven true for nearly 60 years. Alternative investments, or those investments outside what has been regarded as traditional investments,¹ comprise hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, property funds and art. This dilemma of definition by default gets more complex when we see that constituent segments of the alternative investment industry, such as hedge funds, are also defined by reference to what they are not.