BOSTON (HedgeWorld.com)–Hedge funds barely registered on the radar screen of investors queried in Eaton Vance Corp.’s annual survey, but fund managers shouldn’t feel too bad. The industry’s “Q Rating” was on par with a couple of guys on whom enough ink has been spilled this past year to print a small-town newspaper: New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson.
In the nationwide survey of 1,000 investors, 60% of respondents said they were unaware of any recent SEC reforms. Of the 40% who were aware of some, however, 27% said they knew of the SEC’s move to regulate hedge funds. Thirty-seven percent said they recalled a proposed SEC rule to implement a hard market close at 4 p.m. ET to deal with late trading of mutual fund shares.
Nonetheless, nearly 75% of investors said they had a “favorable opinion” of mutual fund companies.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has much better numbers than his boss a few blocks away–90% of investors said they held a favorable view of him. Even the SEC got relatively high marks, with 67% of investors saying they had a positive view of the regulator. Then again, 60% of these same investors also held a favorable view of Congress.