The Hedge Fund Mirage: The Illusion of Big Money and Why It's Too Good to Be True - Hardcover

by Simon A. Lack (Author)

The dismal truth about hedge funds and how investors can get a greater share of the profits

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.

Back Jacket

Sure, hedge funds have produced some of the greatest fortunes in recent years, but the shocking reality is that investors would have made more putting their money into treasury bills instead. And while hedge funds have proved to be serious moneymakers for those that manage them, investors themselves rarely reap the benefits. In The Hedge Fund Mirage: The Illusion of Big Money and Why It's Too Good to Be True, hedge fund expert Simon Lack blows the lid off the secret world of this class of investments, teaching you everything you need to know to maximize your own returns.

Drawing on an insider's view of hedge fund growth during the 1990s, a time when investors in the field did well in part because there were relatively few of them, The Hedge Fund Mirage chronicles the history of the hedge fund, highlighting the many subtle and not-so-subtle ways that returns and risks are biased in favor of the fund manager, and how investors and allocators can redress this imbalance. Packed with information about the industry and what's wrong with it, the book steers you away from the traps that befall so many investors. Full of helpful pointers on how to really get the most out of your hedge fund investments, it encourages using new and emerging hedge fund managers whose returns are generally better, negotiating more assertively for stronger investor rights, and warns anyone putting their money in the hands of a manager to demand complete transparency at all times.

Hedge fund investors have had it tough in recent years, but that doesn't mean that there isn't money to be made. As the success of hedge fund managers shows, opportunities are there. The dilemma for investors is figuring out how to identify managers you can trust and learning the techniques to keep more of the money generated using your capital. The Hedge Fund Mirage is here to help, turning the tables on conventional industry wisdom to put you, the investor, back in charge.

Author Biography

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.