A year ago investment banks were falling over themselves to stake their claim to a slice of the nascent, but potentially highly lucrative, hedge fund replication industry download PDF.

Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and Bear Stearns were among those that launched products that either aimed to reproduce the returns of the broad hedge fund universe – but with far greater liquidity and transparency and much lower fees – or mimic the performance of specific hedge fund strategies.