Description
Shocking but true: if all the money that's ever been invested in hedge funds had been in treasury bills, the results would have been twice as good.
Although hedge fund managers have earned some great fortunes, investors as a group have done quite poorly, particularly in recent years. Plagued by high fees, complex legal structures, poor disclosure, and return chasing, investors confront surprisingly meager results. Drawing on an insider's view of industry growth during the 1990s, a time when hedge fund investors did well in part because there were relatively few of them, The Hedge Fund Mirage chronicles the early days of hedge fund investing before institutions got into the game and goes on to describe the seeding business, a specialized area in which investors provide venture capital-type funding to promising but undiscovered hedge funds. Today's investors need to do better, and this book highlights the many subtle and not-so-subtle ways that the returns and risks are biased in favor of the hedge fund manager, and how investors and allocators can redress the imbalance.
- The surprising frequency of fraud, highlighted with several examples that the author was able to avoid through solid due diligence, industry contacts, and some luck
- Why new and emerging hedge fund managers are where generally better returns are to be found, because most capital invested is steered towards apparently safer but less profitable large, established funds rather than smaller managers that evoke the more profitable 1990s
Hedge fund investors have had it hard in recent years, but The Hedge Fund Mirage is here to change that, by turning the tables on conventional wisdom and putting the hedge fund investor back on top.
About the Author
SIMON LACK has spent his entire career in trading and hedge fund investing. After twenty-three years with JPMorgan, he founded SL Advisors, LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor, in 2009. Much of Lack's career with JPMorgan was spent in North American fixed income derivatives and forward FX trading, a business that he ran successfully through several bank mergers, ultimately overseeing fifty professionals and $300 million in annual revenues. He sat on JPMorgan's investment committee which allocated over $1 billion to hedge fund managers and founded the JPMorgan Incubator Funds, two privateequity vehicles that establish economic stakes for emerging hedge fund managers. Lack's financial markets experience dates back to 1980 when he began his career on the floor of the London Stock Exchange.
Reviews
"Simon Lack, a hedge fund veteran exposes some unforeseen and uncomfortable truths about the industry in his new book." (Hedge Fund Net, January 2012)
"...a cautionary tale from one who knows just about all the tricks...an easy, largely fun and certainly instructive read" (Financial World, February 2012)
"Devastating little book.... His conclusions will make uncomfortable reading for many self-styled 'masters of the universe'.... This book should be required reading for pension fund trustees." (Jonathan Ford, Financial Times, 19th February 2012)
Book Information
ISBN 9781118164310
Author Simon A. Lack
Format Hardback
Page Count 208
Imprint John Wiley & Sons Inc
Publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc
Weight(grams) 386g
Dimensions(mm) 226mm * 155mm * 15mm
