Is there a way to check the Alpha, at any given time, of say; all hedge funds, individual funds, etc? I'm not sure if this information is widely available, or can be reflected through specific Mutual funds, ETF's, etc.
Returns on an investment in excess of the risk adjusted return. It's supposedly a way to differentiate lucky managers taking higher risks from those with true skill. For example a manager outperforms the S&P one year. While 100 invested in the S&P becomes 110, 100 invested in his fund becomes 150. By measuring his returns relative to the risk he took to earn those returns one could see that his returns were inline with the risks he took since the stock he invested in had a beta of 1.5, which means it usually moves up or down 1.5x the S&P's same movement.
You might be interested in Institutional Investor, it's a free magazine/site you just have to register and say you are somehow in the field. I know they have a hedge fund "report card" but not sure how detailed it gets. There are issues with hedge funds ensuring that they don't solicit to non-accredited investors so they're usually careful about what they publish for general public consumption.