Comments on: Hedge Funds Got Shellacked Again in October

By: Francois

Francois — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:42:00 +0000

I’m no hedge fund manager either, but having seen Roubini being on the target for the last year, my strategy was simplicity itself:

1)Buy some LEAPS puts on liquid underlying stocks.
2) Get everything 401k related into money markets (These asshats do not allow you to be in cash — no fees for them there right?)

By: Yves Smith

Yves Smith — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:15:00 +0000

I’m no hedge fund manager, and I am up for the year, more than if I had been in cash. So I don’t see any excuse for this performance.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:02:00 +0000

To me, hedge fund performance looks to be outstanding -- down 2.69% in October.

Assets as of 9/30/2008: $1650 billion plus $110 billion = $1760 billion

Portfolio losses: $110 billion minus $62.7 billion = $47.3 billion

Percentage loss: $47.3 divided by $1760 = 2.69%

Hedge fund investors pulled 3.6% out of the hedge funds -- probably in particularly risky funds -- so what's the big deal?

Not to do a Emily Litella Redux, but what's all this I hear about hedge funds getting "Shellacked"?

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:39:00 +0000

The UAW needs a little tough love. It derailed the Cerberus deal at Delphi. Today GM suffers a loss of about $2,000 per vehicle sold. On the other hand Toyota whose employees are not part of the UAW earns a profit of about $1,200 per vehicle sold. If GM was able to operate with labor prices near Toyota’s it would have pocketed an additional $29,715,200,000.

GM bailout nonsense

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:13:00 +0000

All things considered, down 12% isn't bad. Most diversified portfolios in stocks/bonds/real estate would be worse.

It's not asset-weighted (see below). Also how are closed funds accounted for?

The monthly index values are the respective mathematical means (average) of the monthly returns of all hedge fund constituents in the index at that time. Unlike other indices they are not asset weighted (see relevant paragraph below) or the median return.

By: FairEconomist

FairEconomist — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:05:00 +0000

All things considered, down 12% isn’t bad. Most diversified portfolios in stocks/bonds/real estate would be worse.

By: alexblack

alexblack — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:40:00 +0000

To all the hedge fund workers, typing up their resumes: Lots of new jobs will be opening up for government employees in the new Administration. Be sure to include the words, “Am very respectful of authority figures.” They look for that sort of thing.

Every laid asphalt? Include that too.