Hedge Fund Manipulation

Happy New Year, everyone! What better way to start the year than highlight rampant fraud?

Hedge funds seem to make all the headlines. Rarely do we hear about plain old mutual funds much anymore. ETFs, derivatives and hedge funds are the investments du jour (or perhaps, “du la decennie” or “of the decade”?) There is a tremendous misunderstanding of what “hedge funds” are, how they invest and what to expect from them. The category is as broad and diverse as the “mutual fund” category is.

Asset Classes

It occurred to me, for reasons I’ll mention shortly, that we haven’t specifically discussed the concept of an ‘asset class’. There is a universe of assets out there: you can buy stocks, bonds or real estate for example. Some assets trade on exchanges with daily liquidity and pricing while some assets, like direct investments in real estate, have little liquidity and vague estimates of the current value. There are currencies and gold, commodities and collectibles (e.g. art, wine) amongst others.

Hedge Funds

You hear the term quite a bit these days, in all sorts of contexts. What is a hedge fund and why are they so special?