They say what doesn’t break you makes you stronger. For hedge funds, 2012 was a backbreaking year to put it mildly. Heightened market volatility, stressed global macroeconomic conditions, and underperformance relative to traditional investing vehicles were just a few of the factors that challenged hedge funds in 2012. Add the extra weight of an increasing regulatory burden, and many fund leaders might have been forgiven for packing it in. But something telling happened instead — the industry emerged from 2012 stronger than it went in, surpassing the records it set in 2007 for assets under management (AuM) and absolute number of Those that remained settled into a more measured and sustainable.
