This, our ninth annual Hedge Fund Compensation report, finds the hedge fund industry in the throes of change. The hedge fund industry rebounded convincingly in the years immediately following the 2008 financial crisis, seeing its first down year in 2011. This was followed by back to back years of positive, if not stellar results, followed by a significant performance decline in 2014.

In 2015, we see yet another round of lackluster performance, fueled by complex market conditions, continued interest rate uncertainty, a slowing Chinese economy, counter-productive ECB measures, terror threats and other impacting factors.

Nonetheless, 56 percent of our survey participants expect to take home more cash and less than one in five expecting a pay cut. Similarly, all our respondents are expecting to receive bonus pay, albeit more in step with performance than we saw in 2014.

Predictably, we are reporting even weaker numbers than we reported last year for performance results. This year we report a positive performance for 75 percent of participating funds, a decline of 4 percentage points from last year’s report and number quite distant from the 90 percent we reported in 2013.

At the upper end of the performance scale, there was a one percent uptick in firms reporting gains of 25 percent or more, however that puts the number at 4 percent, miles away from 2013’s 18 percent.

Among the highlights from this year’s report:

• The dominant fund strategy for 2015 is Long/Short Equity.
• Sixty-nine percent of hedge fund professionals work in funds having less than 100 employees.
• Twenty-four percent of Analysts have an MBA.
• The top-earning job title in 2015 was Chief Investment Officer.
• Those working in hedge funds with assets under management of less than 100 million earned 54 percent of their compensation in the form of bonus pay.
• Only 4 percent of hedge fund professionals rate their firm’s training program as excellent while 55 percent indicated weak or non-existent programs.
• Hedge fund professionals earning more than 1 million dollars received 83 percent of their pay in the form of a bonus.

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