Alternative investment statistics can show more than headline asset totals. The SEC’s Form PF data tracks private funds and qualifying hedge funds by gross asset value-to-net asset value (GAV-to-NAV) ratio, while also measuring the share of aggregate private-fund borrowing supplied by U.S. financial creditors. The figures below cover 2022 Q1 through 2024 Q1 and are reported in billions of dollars or percentages, as specified.
Table of contents
- How to read these alternative investment statistics
- Private-fund GAV-to-NAV statistics
- The largest private-fund bucket over time
- Higher-ratio private-fund buckets
- Qualifying hedge-fund statistics
- Hedge-fund GAV-to-NAV comparison
- U.S. financial-creditor borrowing share
How to read these alternative investment statistics
The source groups funds according to GAV-to-NAV ratio ranges. A ratio in the [1,2) bucket means the reported ratio is at least 1 and below 2. The [2,5) and [5,10) buckets follow the same convention. The final bucket is reported as 10 or more.
These are not returns, fundraising totals, or investor-flow statistics. The dollar figures describe the reported holdings of the specified fund group in each quarter. The borrowing series is a percentage: aggregate borrowing by all private funds from U.S. financial creditors as a share of the measured borrowing total.
All figures in this article come from the SEC Annual Staff Report Relating to the Use of Form PF Data. The supplied research is legacy research and was not independently verified for this article. Measurement dates and the source label are retained as reported.
Private-fund GAV-to-NAV statistics
The broadest private-fund series in the supplied data is the [1,2) GAV-to-NAV bucket. It remained well above the other reported private-fund ratio buckets in every quarter shown. The series was $12,953 billion in 2022 Q1, then moved to $12,730 billion in 2022 Q2 and $12,632 billion in 2022 Q3. It stood at $12,906 billion in 2022 Q4.
The next four observations were $12,797 billion in 2023 Q1, $12,809 billion in 2023 Q2, $12,861 billion in 2023 Q3, and $13,798 billion in 2023 Q4. The latest supplied observation was $14,014 billion in 2024 Q1.
The complete quarterly sequence is useful because the series does not move in a straight line. It declined across the first three quarters of 2022, rose in the fourth quarter, stayed close to $12.8 trillion through the first three quarters of 2023, and then reached higher reported levels in 2023 Q4 and 2024 Q1. These observations describe the [1,2) group specifically; they should not be read as a total for every alternative investment strategy.
The SEC source also reports three smaller private-fund buckets. Funds in the [2,5) category held $721 billion in 2022 Q1, $698 billion in 2022 Q2, $711 billion in 2022 Q3, and $674 billion in 2022 Q4. The 2023 observations were $695 billion, $747 billion, $699 billion, and $742 billion by quarter, followed by $714 billion in 2024 Q1.
| Private-fund GAV-to-NAV bucket | 2022 Q1 | 2022 Q4 | 2023 Q4 | 2024 Q1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
[1,2) | $12,953 billion | $12,906 billion | $13,798 billion | $14,014 billion |
[2,5) | $721 billion | $674 billion | $742 billion | $714 billion |
[5,10) | $189 billion | $249 billion | $232 billion | $252 billion |
10 or more | $130 billion | $105 billion | $174 billion | $188 billion |
Source: SEC Annual Staff Report Relating to the Use of Form PF Data.
The largest private-fund bucket over time
The [1,2) private-fund bucket provides the dominant scale in this dataset. Its reported value was $12,953 billion in 2022 Q1 and $14,014 billion in 2024 Q1. Between those endpoints, the lowest supplied quarterly value was $12,632 billion in 2022 Q3, while the final two observations were $13,798 billion in 2023 Q4 and $14,014 billion in 2024 Q1.
The [2,5) bucket was much smaller in each reported quarter, with observations ranging from $674 billion in 2022 Q4 to $747 billion in 2023 Q2. Its 2024 Q1 value was $714 billion. This pattern shows why the ratio definition matters when interpreting private-fund statistics: different GAV-to-NAV groups can have different levels and different quarter-to-quarter paths.
The SEC report’s quarterly observations also show that a single quarter can be misleading. For example, the [2,5) series rose from $698 billion in 2022 Q2 to $711 billion in 2022 Q3, then fell to $674 billion in 2022 Q4. In 2023, it reached $747 billion in Q2 before moving to $699 billion in Q3, $742 billion in Q4, and $714 billion in 2024 Q1.
Higher-ratio private-fund buckets
The higher-ratio groups were reported at smaller dollar values than the [1,2) and [2,5) groups. The [5,10) private-fund bucket held $189 billion in 2022 Q1, $212 billion in 2022 Q2, $235 billion in 2022 Q3, and $249 billion in 2022 Q4. Its 2023 values were $272 billion in Q1, $236 billion in Q2, $245 billion in Q3, and $232 billion in Q4. The reported 2024 Q1 value was $252 billion.
The 10 or more group held $130 billion in 2022 Q1 and then $119 billion, $106 billion, and $105 billion in the next three quarters. It was reported at $108 billion in 2023 Q1, $122 billion in Q2, $146 billion in Q3, and $174 billion in Q4. In 2024 Q1, the figure was $188 billion.
For this group, the quarterly sequence shows lower reported levels in late 2022 followed by higher observations through 2023 and into 2024 Q1. The [5,10) group instead reached its highest supplied value in 2023 Q1 at $272 billion, then remained between $232 billion and $252 billion over the next four reported quarters.
These figures are best used as category-level context. The dataset does not provide fund counts, strategy names, performance, investor allocations, or a separate explanation for each quarterly change. Accordingly, the observations identify the scale of each reported ratio bucket without assigning causes to movements.
Qualifying hedge-fund statistics
The qualifying hedge-fund figures cover two GAV-to-NAV buckets in the supplied research. The [1,2) hedge-fund bucket held $3,403 billion in 2022 Q1. It then held $3,114 billion in 2022 Q2, $2,995 billion in 2022 Q3, and $3,051 billion in 2022 Q4.
During 2023, the same bucket was reported at $3,098 billion in Q1, $3,108 billion in Q2, $3,148 billion in Q3, and $3,106 billion in Q4. The 2024 Q1 observation was $3,252 billion. Thus, the supplied series includes a decline during the first three quarters of 2022, followed by quarterly readings mostly around $3.1 trillion in 2023 and a higher reading in 2024 Q1.
The [2,5) qualifying hedge-fund bucket held $475 billion in 2022 Q1, $481 billion in 2022 Q2, $488 billion in 2022 Q3, and $434 billion in 2022 Q4. The 2023 sequence was $449 billion in Q1, $517 billion in Q2, $468 billion in Q3, and $512 billion in Q4. It was reported at $479 billion in 2024 Q1.
Hedge-fund GAV-to-NAV comparison
The two qualifying hedge-fund series show different quarterly patterns. The [1,2) bucket had its highest supplied value in 2022 Q1 at $3,403 billion and its lowest in 2022 Q3 at $2,995 billion. The [2,5) bucket reached its highest supplied value in 2023 Q2 at $517 billion and its lowest in 2022 Q4 at $434 billion.
| Qualifying hedge-fund bucket | 2022 Q1 | 2022 Q4 | 2023 Q2 | 2024 Q1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
[1,2) | $3,403 billion | $3,051 billion | $3,108 billion | $3,252 billion |
[2,5) | $475 billion | $434 billion | $517 billion | $479 billion |
Source: SEC Annual Staff Report Relating to the Use of Form PF Data.
The hedge-fund observations should not be combined with the private-fund observations as though they were one mutually exclusive total. The source labels describe different reported populations: all private funds for the first set and qualifying hedge funds for the second. Keeping those populations separate is essential when comparing alternative investment statistics.
U.S. financial-creditor borrowing share
The borrowing series measures the share of aggregate borrowing by all private funds that came from U.S. financial creditors. It was 66.4% in 2022 Q1 and 66.6% in 2022 Q2. The share rose to 67.7% in 2022 Q3 before moving to 66.5% in 2022 Q4.
In 2023, the reported quarterly shares were 66.4% in Q1, 66.3% in Q2, 65.3% in Q3, and 64.0% in Q4. The 2024 Q1 share was 67.3%.
| Quarter | U.S. financial-creditor share of aggregate private-fund borrowing |
|---|---|
| 2022 Q1 | 66.4% |
| 2022 Q2 | 66.6% |
| 2022 Q3 | 67.7% |
| 2022 Q4 | 66.5% |
| 2023 Q1 | 66.4% |
| 2023 Q2 | 66.3% |
| 2023 Q3 | 65.3% |
| 2023 Q4 | 64.0% |
| 2024 Q1 | 67.3% |
Source: SEC Annual Staff Report Relating to the Use of Form PF Data.
The share stayed above 64% in every quarter supplied. Its highest reported value was 67.7% in 2022 Q3, and its lowest was 64.0% in 2023 Q4. The increase to 67.3% in 2024 Q1 followed the 64.0% observation in the preceding quarter. This is a creditor-origin measure, not a measure of the amount borrowed, borrowing cost, default risk, or fund performance.
Taken together, these alternative investment statistics provide three distinct views of the private-markets landscape: reported private-fund holdings by GAV-to-NAV bucket, qualifying hedge-fund holdings by two ratio buckets, and the geographic or institutional source share represented by U.S. financial creditors. Each view has its own unit, population, and measurement definition, so comparisons should preserve those distinctions.