Short-Put Exposures in Hedge Fund Returns: Are They Really There?

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that systematic risk in hedge fund returns is partly captured by short positions in put option returns. This is suggestive of a potential ‘peso problem’ in hedge fund returns: a series of steady returns may alternate with an occasional crash. In this paper, we analyze whether equity option-exposures are actually there, and find they are not. Although some hedge fund indices show some exposure to put or call-returns, several robustness analysis as well as an analysis of individual hedge fund returns show that exposures are not consistent with fundamental characteristics of options, such as put-call parity and the positive relation between option prices and volatility.