A hedge fund is a private investment fund designed to return a profit to investors regardless of the performance of markets in equities, commodities, currencies or derivatives.

Hedge funds tend to have fewer restrictions and less regulatory control on the types of investments it can make.

They normally use higher risk investment techniques to leverage the potential for returns. Given this more aggressive strategy, they are marketed generally only to more sophisticated market investors.

Hedge funds usually charge a high performance fee in addition to annual and initial fees.