Risk and Return in Fixed Income Arbitrage: Nickels in Front of a Steamroller?
53 Pages Posted: 28 Dec 2005
Date Written: March 2006
Abstract
We conduct an analysis of the risk and return characteristics of a number of widely used fixed income arbitrage strategies. We find that the strategies requiring more "intellectual capital" to implement tend to produce significant alphas after controlling for bond and equity market risk factors. These positive alphas remain significant even after taking into account typical hedge fund fees. In contrast with other hedge fund strategies, many of the fixed income arbitrage strategies produce positively skewed returns. These results suggest that there may be more economic substance to fixed income arbitrage than simply "picking up nickels in front of a steamroller."
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Offshore Hedge Funds: Survival and Performance 1989-1995
By Stephen J. Brown, William N. Goetzmann, ...
-
Offshore Hedge Funds: Survival and Performance 1989-1995
By Stephen J. Brown, William N. Goetzmann, ...
-
Characteristics of Risk and Return in Risk Arbitrage
By Mark L. Mitchell and Todd C. Pulvino
-
Offshore Hedge Funds: Survival & Performance 1989-1995
By William N. Goetzmann, Roger G. Ibbotson, ...
-
Offshore Hedge Funds: Survival & Performance 1989-1995
By Stephen J. Brown, William N. Goetzmann, ...
-
An Econometric Model of Serial Correlation and Illiquidity in Hedge Fund Returns
By Mila Getmansky Sherman, Andrew W. Lo, ...
-
An Econometric Model of Serial Correlation and Illiquidity in Hedge Fund Returns
By Mila Getmansky Sherman, Andrew W. Lo, ...
-
Hedge Funds: The Living and the Dead
By Bing Liang
-
Flows, Performance, and Managerial Incentives in Hedge Funds
By Vikas Agarwal, Naveen D. Daniel, ...