The main differences between a hedge fund and a private equity fund are: (a) the private equity fund looks to use leverage to buy companies to obtain full management control for purposes of changing its structure operations, whereas a hedge fund trades assets without looking for full control; (b) the hedge fund covers a multitude of styles, only one small part of which might involve buying shares to force management to make value enhancing changes (activist); and (c) hedge funds often (but not always) have a shorter investment horizon than private equity firms. Overall, hedge funds.
