Cloning Research Last decade, hedge funds were the glamour investment. For everyday investors, hedge funds were rumors rather than reality, because 1) such funds could be bought only by the wealthy and 2) their performance records were hidden. It was (and is) illegal for hedge funds to publish their returns, as only accredited investors were permitted to view them. Hedge funds were, in a sense, rated X. The general-public version soon arrived: replication funds. These were funds that would be for everybody.