Absolute Return

Absolute Return
In general, a mutual fund seeks to produce returns that are better that its peers, its fund category, and/or the market as a whole. This type of fund management is referred to as a relative return approach to fund investing. As an investment vehicle, an absolute return fund seeks to make positive returns by employing investment management techniques that differ from traditional mutual funds.

Absolute return investment techniques include using short selling, futures, options, derivatives, arbitrage, leverage and unconventional assets.

Alfred Winslow Jones is credited with forming the first absolute return fund in New York in 1949. In recent years, this so-called absolute return approach to fund investing has become one of the fastest growing investment products in the world and is more commonly referred to as a hedge fund.