MSCI launches family of hedge fund indices

Date: Tuesday, July 9, 2002

Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc. is launching a new index family featuring more than 90 indices derived from hedge funds. The indices are organized in accordance with the comprehensive MSCI Hedge Fund Classification Standard, which uses the investment process of hedge fund managers as the dominant characteristic to classify funds and define strategy indices. The new indicies are calculated monthly. They are supported by a growing database of over 750 hedge funds and a Web-based analytical tool. In a complex investment area that is difficult to measure and analyze, MSCI believes the indices offer transparency in index construction and maintenance, a more comprehensive hedge fund classification framework, and an extensive and reliable fund database that together can serve as a meaningful basis for conducting peer group analysis. "Our clients have expressed a strong interest in a global family of MSCI Hedge Fund Indices which would help them better analyze performance characteristics of hedge fund strategies," said Henry Fernandez, president and CEO of MSCI in a news release. "While it is currently not possible to build hedge fund indices to the same level of comprehensiveness as equity indices, we believe we have developed a product that will be useful to hedge fund investors."