The jury is out

Do hedge funds flourish better in boutiques or institutions?

The appeal of wealth and genuine investment freedom has fuelled a boom in the number of independent 'boutique' hedge funds in recent years.

Their competitors, larger institutions, are reluctant to miss out and bring with them many advantages: they can provide crucial initial seeding and asset raising; they can exploit ideas from their long-only funds; and their extensive operational infrastructure allows fund managers to concentrate exclusively on the investment process.

However, the growth of