Straight from wikipedia[1]: During the US bull market of the 1920s, there were numerous private investment vehicles available to wealthy investors. Of that per

Straight from wikipedia[1]: During the US bull market of the 1920s, there were numerous private investment vehicles available to wealthy investors. Of that period, the best known today is the Graham-Newman Partnership, founded by Benjamin Graham and his long-time business partner Jerry Newman. This was cited by Warren Buffett in a 2006 letter to the Museum of American Finance as an early hedge fund, and based on other comments from Buffett, Janet Tavakoli deems Graham's investment firm the first hedge fund. The sociologist Alfred W. Jones is credited with coining the phrase "hedged fund" and is credited with creating the first hedge fund structure in 1949. Jones referred to his fund as being "hedged", a term then commonly used on Wall Street to describe the management of investment risk due to changes in the financial markets. In other words, it depends on who you ask and what your exact understanding is of what defines a hedge(d) fund. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedge_fund#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedge_fund#History