Fund-manager Books

This book is certainly not a definitive guide to evaluating hedge funds. It focuses pretty much exclusively on a number of tools for evaluating the risks and returns of hedge funds from a quantitative perspective. It discusses and illustrates some interesting ideas such as the Hurst Index and d ratio to help us evaluate the dynamic nature of hedge fund returns. However, the book is flawed by many figures that either do not display what they are said to in the text or sometimes simply repeat the previous figure with a different number and caption, or perhaps are completely wrong. This makes the book hard to understand in parts.

This book will be useful for the money manager interested in choosing among the growing universe of hedge funds. Despite some overmethodical and occasionally dubious measurement techniques (much is made of the mysterious-sounding "d ratio", which is simply the ratio of winning months to losing months), Lavinio does provide some useful tools for evaluating the past performance and future prospects of different hedge funds.

The only disappointment is that Lavinio tends to treat hedge funds as mysterious black boxes, scrutinizing their results without any real attention to their methods. The lay reader will probably find little to satisfy his/her curiosity.

Only focuses on one aspect: risk computations and leverage This book is certainly not a handbook on how to buy a hedge fund. It spends a great deal of time discussing how to disect a fund's returns mathematically. It does a good job of explaining in simple English what is wrong with using standard deviations of returns in trying to determine a fund's risk. Unfortunately, that is not all that one should consider in evaluating a fund. It does not go into detail about looking at other funds a manager may have been involved with, comparing that fund's returns to other funds in its class. It does not talk about understanding how hedge funds determine their fees, how to watch out for fraud, how to evaluate a fund's accountants and lawyers and the relative importance of these factors. It does not spend much time on discussing the risks involved due to the fact that most funds limit when one can put in or take out money or that a fund may force you to take some of your investment back. It also does not discuss tax treatment. Many funds' earnings are reportable as regular income. This may be important. The bottom line is that you can find out about risk and volatility from a stat book. It is the other behind the scenes unformation that is also critical in choosing a hedge fund.

I am highly skeptical of the data behind most of this book. The figures seem consistently wrong. I doubt a single set of data could give the #s shown in both Table 4.2 & Chart 4.5. I find it funny that in Charts 7.1 & 7.2, 2 managers have tremendously different gross returns, but seemingly the exact same set of monthly returns. Funny again, in Charts 8.1 & 8.2, "Best" & "Random" managers seem to have the exact same results. Are the errors in proof-reading, concept, or facts?

I read this book in about an hour, it is vey simplistic in the analisis and its conclusion or based on assumptions that can never be applied to hedge funds, specialy his survivorship analysis. I have read about 10 books in hedge funds, I find this the least helpful.

I am a trader,,I like this book ver much only for the fact it confims many of my strategies. I learned more from another book titled Hedge Fund Trading Secrets Revealed which has a similar tite but has more updated strategies

In my daily work as a Stock Broker in Sweden I encounter questions about good trading books all the time. Customers feel that most trading books are quite expensive, and a good way to avoid overpriced, worthless items is by asking an experienced professional. While I truly do not feel that the mystery of the markets can be revealed in a book, I can honestly say that this book is well worth its price.

Above all, it gives the open-minded reader insights in highly effective approaches, concepts of trading which I have used successfully for many years. In fact, strikingly similar methods to the methods in this book have been "discovered" and used by investors, brokers, and traders that I know, even before this book was published. In my mind, this is another good indication that many of the patterns presented are valid in real-life trading.

While I do not use the patterns in this book in the exact same manner as they are presented, the concepts and the insights are the same. Time spent studying these concepts will be time well spent. I consider Investment Secrets of a Hedge Fund Manager to be among the best trading books I've read. It contains no hype, just precise and sound swing trading techniques. I recommend it highly to all market participants, novices and professionals alike.

Some of the other books that I consider to be among the best are:

Market Wizards 1 & 2, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Trading Systems and Methods, How to Make Money in Stocks, Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets, Street Smarts, Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques, Secrets of Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets, Technical Analysis of Stock Trends, Trading by the Book, Exceptional Trading.

Of the hundreds of trading books I have in my personal library and the thousands which I have access to in my professional life, Investment Secrets of a Hedge Fund Manager remains a personal favourite.

I still rank it as one of the most informative books on trading I have had the pleasure to peruse...

1) The authors claim that their "financial survival is dependent upon successfully trading the markets" yet you should not assume that they traded any of the examples set forth in the book.

2) The "secrets" revealed consume less than 20 pages with the remaining circa 180 pages being filled with charts and related examples (at least half of the book), performance summaries and trading signals (over 50 pages), and other various and sundried fluff. Thus, the book seems to be exploiting the herd mentality of those who buy books on the financial markets rather than the markets themselves.

3) What type of "secrets" are revealed here? "Investment Secrets", of course! "Investments" like futures contracts and index options. Who is revealing these "secrets"? A "Hedge Fund Manager", of course! Hey, why not? It could very well be that the revelation of hedge fund manager type secrets will produce higher profits (with much less risk) than actually trading the secrets.

4) I have a relatively high I.Q. yet I actually bought this book........Mooooooooooooooooooooooo

I bought the book thinking it was about how hedge funds operate. Little did I know is was a day traders guide to making money. Way too many repetetive charts. I back tested the ideas and well the ideeas presented in this book works great in a bull market but like the NDX/SPX ratio even in a bear market will kill you.
I did n't like it. sorry to say

the title was intriguing, but it was downhill from there. the book had little to do with the title, which always makes me question the motives of the author. is there some message they are aching to express, or are they looking to simply enrich themselves?