New Hedge Fund Wisdom Q4 Issue Just Released Featuring New Consensus Buy/Sell Section

The new Q4 issue of our premium Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter has just been released and it features a brand new consensus buy/sell section!  Subscribers please login at www.hedgefundwisdom.com to download it.

In The New Issue

- Brand new consensus buy/sell section:  Top 5 buys, top 5 sells, top 5 additions, top 5 reductions.  Each list shows what stocks hedgies were trading and provides commentary on why they were buying/selling

- Newly updated portfolios of 25 top hedge funds: See the latest holdings of Seth Klarman, David Tepper, John Paulson, Steve Mandel, David Einhorn, Chase Coleman and many more big names

- Expert commentary on each fund's moves: We put each fund's activity into context (after all, we've been tracking these funds for 5+ years)

- Equity analysis section written by hedge fund analysts:  Investment thesis summaries on 3 stocks hedgies were buying in Q4

- 1 convenient document: All the important information you need aggregated to save you time


Want to see what you've been missing?  Here's a free sample of an entire past issue.  Join hundreds of other subscribers and see what you're missing:


Find Out What Hedge Funds Have Been Buying, Subscribe Below


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Avoiding Mistakes in Hedge Funds: Lessons Learned From Blowups & Frauds

Greenwich Roundtable has published an interesting piece on Best Practices in Alternative Investing: Avoiding Mistakes.  In it, they dive into due diligence on fund manager selection in an effort to examine warning signs of potential trouble in funds.

They utilize case studies to showcase hedge funds that have failed and how investors could have identified these warning signs and minimized the impact. 

We thought this would be an excellent study for two groups of people: those invested in (or looking to invest in) hedge funds, as well as potential hedge fund managers looking to launch a fund.  Everyone can learn from others' mistakes here.


Warning Signs Learned From Hedge Fund Blowups

While there are numerous reasons for hedge fund blowups, two reasons at the forefront seemingly always are excessive leverage and liquidity (or lack thereof).

The document goes in-depth with various case studies, but for summary's sake, here are some of the warning signs they've highlighted:

- Fund was managed by one person with no risk manager

- Dangerous extent of portfolio concentration could have been revealed through conversations

- It's vital to conduct reference checks on key people

- Lack of clear measures of leverage or liquidity in monthly reports

- Manager had track record of less than one year

- Strategy drift

- Lack of transparency

- Assumption that a former analyst can all of a sudden perform as a portfolio manager at a new fund

- Lack of a key man clause

- Beware of a hard sell, especially with third-party marketers

- Manager full of hubris

- Fund grew assets way too quickly

- Fund grew but operating staff didn't grow to keep up

- Abrupt personnel changes/resignations


The end of the report essentially breaks down the categories where warning signs appear: risk management, illiquidity, transparency, complexity, operations, strategy drift, rapid growth, and hubris.

While there are many potential 'yellow flags' in blowups, the two glaring red flags always seem to be excessive leverage and/or illiquidity.

Embedded below is Greenwich Roundtable's comprehensive document on Best Practices in Alternative Investing: Avoiding Mistakes: