In each You Asked For It, we ask the public research houses to respond to topical portfolio construction questions of the day. This fortnight, it’s hedge funds. Are they an asset class? Should they be classified as growth investments, defensive, both or neither?

Responses were received from farrelly’s, van Eyk, Russell, Zenith Investment Partners, Lonsec, Standard & Poor’s, Morningstar and Aegis Equities Research.

Question 1: Are hedge funds an asset class?

Tim Farrelly, farrelly’s
Whether or not hedge funds are an asset class depends somewhat on what hinges on the answer. You can mount a technical argu...