Amid more signs of how data about the hedge fund industry keeps expanding, Wells Fargo has rolled out an index to capture the real-time behaviour of these funds’ 100 biggest positions in the stock market.

The Index is called the Wells Fargo Hedge Fund Manager Holdings Index and tracks performance of positions in securities that are listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ.

The hedge fund industry already has a number of measures of how well – or poorly – this $2 trillion-plus industry fares in achieving returns. Regulators have sought greater transparency from the sector in terms of the market positions it takes, such as when funds short-sell stocks, for example.

"Aggregating hedge fund holdings and illustrating the performance through an index will bring greater transparency to the sector," said Dan Forth, head of strategic indexing for Wells Fargo.

The value of the Index will be disseminated by NYSE every 15 seconds between the hours of 9:30 am and 4:15 pm EST/EDT.