Are Hedge Fund Managers with More Than Two Screens More Productive?

Multitasking 5

By Simon Kerr, Principal of Enhance Consulting I worked with a portfolio manager in the Eighties who got a list of prices over the phone each morning – he did not have a price terminal at all. Today everyone in professional money management roles will have a screen with a price feed (Bloomberg, Reuters etc.), […] Read more »

Relative Gold Before Absolute Gold

By Simon Kerr, Hedge Fund Insight I recently received a commentary from the manager of a junior gold miners funds. He has written: “We believe that the loss of value witnessed in small and mid cap producers  is due to lack of investor interest in smaller gold mining shares, and concerns that they cannot prosper […] Read more »

A Pause For Reflection – Scheduling Nothing

By Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, with an introduction by Simon Kerr, Principal of Enhance Consulting Introduction In the course of my consulting work I come across hedge fund managers who are too busy doing. The working day and week is filled with a lot of activity, but not enough time is devoted to reviewing […] Read more »

Managing An Existing Macro Position – Aussie Dollar Example from Bridgewater As Would Be Managed by Caxton Associates

Having been asked what would a trader or macro manager do now on the Aussie Dollar position mentioned in a couple of articles (here and here) here is a response. Below in graphic one is the original set-up graphic annotated to show the current A$/US$ rate. Graphic One – A$ v US$ over the six […] Read more »

Chart of the Day is the Technical Position of the Aussie Dollar

A recent article here cited a short in the Australian Dollar as a position held by Bridgewater Associates at the turn of the year. Often global macro investors like both a fundamental case and a technical case for their positions – the bias one way or the other is a style point for differentiating between […] Read more »

Bridgewater Associates and the Aussie Dollar

Introduction by Simon Kerr Over the last decade Bridgewater Associates has managed an unusual feat – adding a lot of value to its investors at the same time as adding a lot of assets under management. In doing so it has hit some notable milestones in the last year – it is now by some […] Read more »

Hedge Fund Risk Management is “A Work in Progress”

By Simon Kerr For a long period I was unable to carry on reading SEI’s fifth annual global survey of institutional hedge fund investors beyond this summary point: “RISK MANAGEMENT IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. Only one in five of those we polled agreed that “most hedge funds do a good job of risk management.” […] Read more »

A Response from Con Keating to "The Truth About Hedge Fund Risk"

This blog brought home many basic truths. However, I would like to emphasise a few points. The question of volatility being inadequate as a measure of risk is the first. If we are to succeed in understanding financial risk we need to distinguish between symmetric and asymmetric risk. Symmetric risk – or volatility when returns […] Read more »

The Truth About Hedge Fund Risk

Article contributed by Charles T. Hage Need for Truth The hedge fund industry is seriously short on how it treats the subject of risk. The industry has been confusing investors by defining risk poorly and applying it post‐facto to returns. Especially in times when challenging economic and financial conditions call for high standards of professionalism […] Read more »

Hedge Fund Returns Are Path Dependent – As 2011 Illustrates

One of the things that is attempted on this website is to look at market action to help explain, or comprehend hedge fund returns. For example, two years ago a commentary was distributed on the significance of the quality factor in explaining returns in 2009 (see this article), and the impact of high correlation this […] Read more »