Mutual Fund Manager Calls Hedge Fund Investors Stupid

September 12, 2007 |

Percy Walker does a fine job of responding to the ridiculous assertions made by Arne Alsin a mutual fund manager.  Alsin asserts in a Financial Times article that hedge fund investors are are idiots.   (No, that’s not Percy in the picture, he is a much more handsome chap)

 As Percy states …

Anyone with a bad word for hedge funds these days can have it published no matter how little they know of the subject.  The latest bad word comes from Arne Alsin, a mutual fund manager who seems to know nothing whatsoever about the the behavior of hedge fund investors.

Working with many start up and emerging hedge fund managers, we get our fair share of business plans and marketing documents from them asking us for advice, comments, help, whatnot.  Now, in our experience, some of the worst business plans come from these guys.  This is not because they are stupid, ill informed or unprepared (or is it?).  Rather, the reason lies in the difference in mental discipline required to run a successful hedge fund versus a mutual fund.   For example, how does one go from a long only discipline to a long/short one?

In our experience, the transition is not an easy one — and often not made successfully. 
blog posts

Comments