After two years of middling returns, hedge funds have staged something of a rebound. Through November, some indexes have been in double-digit returns territory. December has been a good month, so no one would be surprised if they turned in an average of about 13 percent. Which is about what the Standard & Poor's 500 will do. So while the huge gains of the past seem hard to achieve, at least the industry can boast respectable gains. Recall that during the last two years returns were not so great, 8.3 percent in 2004 and 7.9 percent in 2005. Emerging market funds seemed to fare best. Long-short funds--the majority of funds--were around average. Of course, hedge funds are largely about a fund picking kind of gain. There were some that turned in huge numbers and some that turned in really negative ones.

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- here's a brief from Financial News