Hedge funds made money in the third quarter but not as much as the stock market, raising questions whether investors will want to keep paying their hefty fees if they can earn more somewhere else for less, Reuters reports. "Hedge fund investors are rightly wondering about their options at a time hedge fund returns have come down," said Kevin Campbell, vice president of research at Van Hedge Fund Advisors in Nashville, Tennessee. "I think there might be some decrease in demand, especially in the United States." The average hedge fund manager had something to brag about at the end of September when third-quarter returns handily outpaced tiny gains from the first two quarters, weighed down by heavy losses in the convertible arbitrage sector. Buoyed by gains in the health-care, utilities and energy sectors, the average hedge fund gained 2.29 percent in July, August, and September after inching up only 0.13 percent in the first six months of the year, according to data released by ratings, research and index company Standard & Poor's. But S&P's widely followed stock index fared better, rising 3.15 percent in the third quarter after having lost 1.70 percent in the first six months. The average U.S. stock mutual fund did better still, gaining 4.65 percent in the quarter, according to research group Lipper Inc., a unit of Reuters. --more 2334 Local Time 2034 GMT
