Fat Hedge Fund Returns Not Likely to Continue

Hedge funds are unlikely to keep up with their gains of the past, according to a new study by Greenwich Associates. The study, released Tuesday, said that increasing assets, an abundance of new managers and a limited number of trading opportunities could restrain hedge fund performance this year.

The virtually unregulated investment partnerships accounted for 82% of trading volume in U.S. distressed debt markets in 2004; 70% of U.S. trading in exchange-traded funds; and more than half of the listed and vanilla OTC options contracts trades in 2004, the Greenwich study noted.