HedgeNordic is proud to publish the Nordic Hedge Fund Industry Report, offering a comprehensive overview of key developments, managers, strategies, and themes shaping the Nordic hedge fund universe. Alongside manager-focused content, the report also features perspectives from institutional allocators investing in hedge funds, both within and beyond the Nordics, providing insight into how the asset class is viewed and utilized in broader portfolio construction.
Please find the report here. Happy reading!
The report begins with institutional portfolio construction in “Elo’s Slow-Moving Hedge Fund Portfolio Built Around Access,” where Mika Jaatinen outlines a balance sheet-driven approach in which hedge funds serve a distinct role, shaped by long-term relationships and gradual portfolio evolution. The focus then shifts to “The New Coda: From Intuition to a Unified Investment Process,” where Peter Andersland and Knut Børsheim explain how their thematic long/short equity strategy is evolving within Coda Partners, supported by a structured, rules-based investment framework designed to improve decision-making in cyclical markets.
Systematic approaches to diversification are explored next. In “When Diversification Fails: Qblue’s Case for Alternative Risk Premia,” Bjarne Graven Larsen and Lars Hougaard Nielsen emphasize the importance of building portfolios that remain uncorrelated not only on average, but especially during periods of market stress. This is followed by “Apoteket CIO Leans on Hedge Funds for High Sharpe,” where Gustav Karner explains how a high-conviction allocation to hedge funds, centered on manager quality, consistency, and disciplined selection, has contributed to strong risk-adjusted returns.
The report then broadens into more specialized and niche segments of the hedge fund universe. In “Ress Launches Euro Feeder as Life Settlements Enter a Higher-Return Regime,” Ress Capital discusses how rising interest rates have reshaped the opportunity set in life settlements. This is followed by “Building Liquidity Around an Illiquid Core at Aars,” where Morten Christensen explains how hedge funds and liquid alternatives are used to provide flexibility and balance.
Strategy innovation continues with “Tidan NOVA Profiting from Volatility Skew as Market Participants Seek Protection,” highlighting how structural inefficiencies in options markets can be monetized through a combination of convexity and carry. The role of technology and data is then addressed in “Data, AI, and the Quest for Edge in Hedge Funds,” where S&P Global Market Intelligence outlines how competitive advantage is increasingly tied to data quality, infrastructure, and the ability to extract actionable insights.
Systematic equity investing is further explored in “Extracting Alpha from the Factor Zoo Through Systematic Investing,” where ORCA Hedge demonstrates how dynamic factor selection and machine learning can be applied to construct diversified, market-neutral portfolios targeting equity-like returns.
The report then shifts to broader industry dynamics. In “How NBIM is Quietly Shaping the Norwegian Hedge Fund Landscape,” the emergence of hedge funds founded by alumni of Norges Bank Investment Management highlights the role of institutional experience in shaping a new generation of managers.
Finally, the publication concludes with a structural perspective on the industry itself. “The Illusion of Longevity: Why Averages Mislead in Hedge Fund Survival” examines lifecycle dynamics within the Nordic hedge fund universe, revealing an industry characterized by high early attrition alongside a smaller group of long-standing, resilient managers.
Together, these perspectives highlight an industry that continues to balance innovation with discipline, combining established expertise with evolving approaches to portfolio construction, risk management, and alpha generation.