We investigate incentive effects of a typical hedge fund contract for a manager with power utility. With a one-year horizon, the manager displays risk taking that varies dramatically with fund value. We extend the model to multiple yearly evaluation periods and find that the manager's risk taking is rapidly moderated if the fund performs reasonably well. The most realistic approach to modeling fund closure uses an endogenous shutdown barrier where the manager optimally chooses to shut down. The manager increases risk taking as fund value approaches that barrier, and this boundary behavior persists strongly with multiyear horizons.

Constructing portfolios based on second-order stochastic dominance (SSD) is theoretically attractive since all risk-averse investors would prefer a dominating portfolio. However, choosing among SSD efficient portfolios is a challenge without an obvious ranking metric. We explore particular choices based on Kuosmanen (2004) plus Kopa and Post (2011), comparing their performance to other SSD-related strategies and to standard portfolio choice approaches. These SSD-related choices outperform portfolios chosen based on their Sharpe ratio, information ratio, or using equal weights. Portfolios based on minimum variance that also match the benchmark’s mean return perform on a par with the SSD-related choices.