The investment industry has always rewarded compelling stories.

At different points in history, investors have been told that technology stocks would change everything, that property prices could only rise, that emerging markets were the future, or that passive investing would solve the challenges of portfolio construction.

Stories mostly contained an element of truth, but they had a downside too. The danger was not the story itself. The problem was what happened when investors came to believe that a single story was all they needed.

In South Africa hedge funds are no different.