[IncreasePosts]

Hedge funds aren't necessarily about getting max gains - they can be about decorrelating some of your investments (hence the hedge). So maybe buying SPY would have worked , but people with their money in hedge funds probably already have a bunch of investments correlated with SPY.

[Terr_]

> they can be about decorrelating some of your investments (hence the hedge).

As a tangential caution to readers: Remember that where you work is something you want to diversify for: Put a bit more into things that won't go bust around the same times you lose your job.

[clove]

That's no longer true and hasn't been for a long time. While the name comes from that concept, the "hedge fund" is now just any fund marketed to accredited investors.