This paper provides an assessment of the comparative effectiveness of four econometric methods in estimating the optimal hedge ratio in an emerging equity market, particularly the South African equity and futures markets. The paper bases the effectiveness of hedging on volatility reduction and minimisation of the coefficient of variation of hedged returns as well as risk-aversion based utility maximisation. The empirical analysis shows that the single equation method estimated by ordinary least squares is the most effective over daily hedging periods. However, the vector error-correction method and multivariate GARCH methods are most effective over weekly and monthly hedging periods.