A hedge fund generally refers to a lightly regulated private investment fund sometimes characterized by unconventional strategies (e.g., strategies other than investing long only in bonds, equities or money markets). They are primarily organized as limited partnerships, and previously were often simply called "limited partnerships" and were grouped with other similar partnerships such as those that invested in oil development.

Origin and development

The term hedge fund dates back to the first such fund founded by Alfred Winslow Jones in 1949. Jones' innovation was to sell short some stocks while buying others, thus some of the market risk was hedged. While most of today's hedge funds still trade stocks both long and short, many do not trade stocks at all.