Three of the largest hedge fund managers have begun marketing products to European retail investors, giving them access for as little as €1,000 ($1,300).

Renaissance Technologies runs a long-biased US equity hedge fund, which it estimates has capacity of $100bn (€79bn) and has raised $10bn. Caxton, founded by Bruce Kovner, runs a long-only US equity fund. Highbridge, which was acquired by JP Morgan in 2004, is using a statistical arbitrage system to run a long-only US equity fund. Other hedge fund managers are also marketing funds in Europe. Cazenove is targeting £100m (€147m) for closed-end investment trust hedge funds focusing on long/short positions in UK and European equities. Merrill Lynch Investment Managers launched an absolute alpha hedge fund this year. Hedge fund managers have limited access to their funds to high net worth individuals and institutional investors, demanding minimum investments of up to $10m. The Ucits III regime was broadened this year to allow limited use of derivatives including shorting and leverage. These techniques are widely used by hedge fund managers.