![Can leopards change their spots? Hedge funds should consider a makeover](https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/FN-AA780_VIEW_l_M_20170616132149.jpg)
The Hedge Fund Standards Board is debating a change of name. It is right to do so. The term ‘hedge fund’ has outlived its usefulness.
It was coined, so they say, by an Australian-born American sociologist and investor, Alfred W Jones, in 1949, to describe his innovative investment vehicle. It short-sold as many stocks as it bought, with the aim of creating a market-neutral portfolio: the first hedge fund.