Hedge Funds Database
HedgeQ is the beta test version of our to-be launched research platform HedgeQuery.
We have had the idea for HedgeQuery since 2008 but at that time we had insufficient funds and time to both start a company AND a web-based start-up. Plus I don't know how to build website, or code, beyond Excel which I am actually really good at.
Fast forward to 2018, I still can't do anything too technical beyond Excel. And we still have a limited budget for my hobby activities. But now we have people in the company who can put together a website to at least test out what users want.
After we were featured on Bloomberg last June, we received lots of queries and some hate mail on what we do. The Razzy goes to the angry trader who was upset that I was modest enough to say that I did not consider Excel to be a programming language.
Surprisingly we had few takers for our more sophisticated tools including one that will search through all the funds in your database to look for correlated funds to find out true peers and also non-correlated (but not necessarily negatively correlated) funds to hedge with. And no users warmed up to our NLP tool that will track positive events in newsletters such as expansion of research team and something negative when managers write that they are sorry (about the markets being wrong). We find that actually very useful.
So we have come down to three tools that people could like enough to click on, or even *gasp* pay.
1. HQ Original Content
These are articles written by the team and yours truly. If you like it please forward to your friends to read too so we get more viewers. The analyst with the lowest number of viewers gets fired. Unless that person is me, then I have to walk the office dog for a week, and shut down this section on articles. We have a focus on quants and emerging managers. So maybe no one wants to read about emerging quants. The point is it is FREE to read our articles and if we don't get viewers to read for FREE then we are obviously not very good at writing.
2. Market Intelligence Reports
Have you wished that some minion (does not have to be yellow and cute) will click through pages and put relevant information on each fund or portfolio manager before a call, meeting, or worst of all, a conference with 45 managers? So you can ask relevant questions which will a) make you look smart; b) actually help you in the analysis of the fund.
Anyone who has gone through this process knows that this is super tedious and time consuming. We have a few samples of these reports which shows how we condense information into 2-3 pages, and you can click on links to read more on a particular subject.
From discussions with allocators this seems useful when it's free. What we will have to find out is if people will PAY to get these reports. We think each report is worth at least the price of a cup of coffee. So if you would like to get a report on a fund that has been featured on our website or appearing in an upcoming conference, we will send you an invoice for FIVE DOLLARS after we email you the report within 24 hours. If you want a report on a fund that was not mentioned on the website that will be two cups of coffee.
If people don't even want to pay five bucks for hours of work then I guess it's not good enough a service. Our analysts can then spend more time giving massages to above-mentioned corgi who suffers from ［scientific name of degenerative disease］.
3. Netflix for Funds
I always get asked by cap intro what funds I am interested in. Wouldn't it be nice if there's a Netflix-like program which will give me suggestions on what I might like, based on what I select? And remember which funds I am already invested in?
Well we are not at the stage where we can customize for each user. But even hand tagging the characteristics of each fund is time consuming because the analyst has to read through the presentation, monthly newsletters, go through public information. Netflix has 40 taggers for their movies. We now have 4. So if this is a useful tool, please click on our site, give feedback on which recommendations you like, get your friends to use the site too!
If there are funds not featured on the site you would like to know more about, send us suggestions here.