2006 Alpha Awards - Compiling the Ranking

Alpha compiled its 2006 Alpha Awardsª ranking of the top hedge fund service providers based on voting in the spring and early summer by more than 1,000 hedge fund management firms. We asked hedge funds to rate the quality of service they received for the 12 months ended March 31, 2006, from their accounting firms, administrators, law firms, prime brokers and technology providers. For each type of provider, service quality was broken down into broad attributes, each of which included a series of specific points of service. Respondents also rated the importance of each service attribute, the result of which was then used to calculate the overall winner in each major category, rewarding firms that do well in the tasks hedge funds prize most. In the accompanying tables we rank only those service providers for which we received a minimum number of responses. Only responses from single-manager hedge fund firms were considered in the prime broker ranking. Alpha’s hedge fund service provider survey was conducted by Associate Editor Michele Bickford under the guidance of Director of Research Operations Group Sathya Rajavelu and Senior Editor Jane B. Kenney, with assistance from Research Specialist Timothy Roberts.