The secondaries market has become a useful area for private equity investors. It provides liquidity when they are looking to sell off old fund interests, or offers a way into private equity funds for those who missed a fundraising effort the first time around.

As such, fundraising in this area has blossomed in recent years and trades of second-hand interests reached $25 billion last year, according to advisory firm Cogent Partners. Yet few studies have looked closely at this opaque corner of the private equity market.