Hedge-fund Books

It is very rare to come across a novel that is both fun and easy to read while providing some on-the-side useful information. This is one of those novels.
Although I believe the original intent of the author was not to instruct us about the turbulent and often obscure ways of Hedge Funds, he does so by the use of witty and structured narrative, cleverly disguised by the story of the main character. And, considering the topic, it could not have been done any other way!
I finished the last page feeling very satisfied. I am sure you will feel the same when you read it.

I just finished reading HEDGE FUND by Holger Berndt. It was a great read - why? Because it has great character development, an interesting storyline, and you get emotionally attached to the main characters. I was sorry it ended and I look forward to reading about Jasper's next business venture in HEDGE FUND PART 2. I highly recommend it.

I just finished the book, and it was a pleasurable & smooth read. I expected to be stimulated on an intellectual level (and I was), but to my surprise I became more captivated with the overall story of Jasper (the protagonist) and his trials & tribulations, his friendships gained and lost...

Overall, I felt the story had a very authentic feel. It gives insight into the day-to-day that occurs in the "hedge fund" world. But, I was more captivated by Jaz's interpersonal developments: Jaz's friendship with his long time partner Alex, his right-hand-man Rocky, his relationship with Angie, his enemies, and those who stood with him. And, the ending was unexpected, but true to life nonetheless.

It's a great novel, the story is compelling on an emotional level, and truly a pleasure to read. I am looking forward to Jaz's next upstart.

If you work in the financial sector, you'll love the story. If you don't work in the financial sector, you'll get authentic insights into the life of a hedge fund manager AND you'll love the story!

I like to read novels that are entertaining and enjoyable. "Hedge Fund" provided me both. I am a Stock Market Junkie. The story line made the book easy to read and it added to my knowledge of investing.



I highly recommend the book whether you are a professional or a novice in finance or you just want to be entertained.



Holger Berndt should send a copy to Ben Benanke. A bill for the price of the book should be attached.

Educational and entertaining look at the business of hedge funds. If you own a fund but always wondered; or are thinking of investing in one of these vehicles, this book is a great, easy read. Jasper and Alex will take you through the trials and tribulations; risks and rewards of owning and running a hedge fund for only the cost of the book-- a bargain compared to the fees,fraud and loses that have been prevalent recently in this industry. Read this book before investing in any hedge fund!

Good solid book. The author began this book by essentially stating that this is a subject that has been ignored for way too long. After reading this very instructive work I couldn't agree more - operational due diligence is a very important part of hedge fund investing, and this book was a great guide. I liked this book for several reasons, the biggest one being that it does not merely describe just a checklist or outline a due diligence questionnaire for hedge funds due diligence. The operational due diligence techniques described seemed to be practical and actually something people could implement. I also liked the historical perspective gave me a good context for everything I was reading too. I enjoyed the examples too. A lot of interesting points and was thought provoking for me.

I first picked up this book because I was looking for a good easy to follow hedge fund resource. I am an auditor and was interested in learning more about hedge funds in general and specifically the accounting/back office side of things. This book gave a nice over view of both.

It wasn't overly technical with useless jargon and I found the example scenarios outlined in the book to be straight forward and easy to understand. Overall good read which outlined audit tools with real world applications. I would recommend this book to accounting students, CPAs, or anyone who wants to learn more about hedge funds. Enjoy !

I bought this book because I wanted to learn more about the due diligence process with all the hedge fund frauds like Madoff in the news. After reading this book it seems clear to me that if people actually listened to experts like Scharfman many people could have avoided losing a lot of money to people like Madoff.

I really liked the author's frank no-nonsense approach to due diligence. I feel like the writer really understands the ins-and-out of the process and breaks it down into simple terms. To me that's what made this a good read. The topic itself is a bit on the technical side, but after reading this book its clear to me that this is a very important part of hedge fund investing that has been neglected for too long.

The book begins by explaining what operational due diligence is and then lays out his approach to what factors should be covered. I found the section in the first Chapter on the history of operational due diligence very informative and give me a good perspective on the subject. The author goes on to make an argument why operational due diligence is important (as if he needed to in light of the news lately!), provide example case studies and outline the importance of on-going monitoring.

I especially enjoyed Chapter 5 "Evaluating the Gray Areas: Examples" which provides hypothetical scenarios an investor might come up against in doing these reviews. Each scenario was well written and easy to follow.

So to sum up, I would highly recommend this book to anyone thinking about investing in a hedge fund or just wanting to learn more about how to conduct proper due diligence. Happy reading!

I found this book to be an excellent overview of this subject. While primarily focused on operational due diligence, I would recommend it as a general primer on hedge funds and investing in general. This well written guide is easy to digest and I feel would be appropriate for both relatively new hedge fund investors and "old pros." I found the most interesting part of the book to be the examples outlined in the Gray Areas chapter. After taking time to understand the due diligence framework outlined by the author and going through these examples I feel I could intelligently approach a hedge fund on my own and conduct a basic due diligence review - which was exactly what I was looking for out of this text. Should be required reading for all hedge fund professionals -period.

This is a groundbreaking work that will change the way people think about due diligence. The author introduces a number of new approaches and techniques for due diligence which seem to be light years ahead of what anyone in the fund of funds community market has been doing, is currently doing or claims to have been doing but wasn't (aka had Madoff exposure).

In addition to recommending this to anyone who even thinks about investing in hedge funds I would also highly recommend this to anyone who works at a fund of hedge funds, a hedge fund or who works in firm's supporting hedge funds (lawyer, administrators, IT providers etc.).

Really this is a must read for anyone involved in the finance industry... not just hedge funds. In a day and age where safety in money and security in investments is fading, the author outlines the steps that are necessary to securely investigate potential investments and protect your funds. I praise him for creating a textbook for the future money managers of the world. I encourage every teacher, manager or other professional in the money markets to read this, read it again and put his advice to work. I agree with the other reviewers, this book came years too late but better late than never!

In this day and age, due diligence is more than just a Google search. This book details the how, where and why one goes beyond this free source of data. The author explains the nuance of many sources of information for looking into the background of hedge funds and individuals. Readers will benefit from the authors hands on experience in this field.

Business-related books can be generalized into certain well-defined categories such as (i)"how to" books (and management books), (ii) profiles of famous people (and the alleged wisdom they impart), or (iii) case studies on the rise and/or demise of firms. The "how to" books are often the most instructive to a practitioner, however, with few notable exceptions (such as Joel Greenblatt's recent book "The Little Book that Beats the Market"), the "how to" books tend to be the most boring of the bunch and are too often filled with seemingly endless lists of best practices. The profile books are often incredibly entertaining but, really, how many books on Donald Trump and Warren Buffet does the world need? The case study books are the most likely to produce `can't-put-it-down' page-turning classics such as Michael Lewis' "Liar's Poker" or Brian Burrough's and John Helyn's "Barbarians at the Gate." Some authors, such as Roger Lowenstein are able to produce terrific books in all three genres.

Randy Shain's book, "Hedge Fund Due Diligence" is primarily a "how to" book primarily targeted to individuals interested in conducting background investigations of hedge funds and hedge fund managers, yet, at the same time, the book's numerous anecdotes about failed hedge funds serve to illustrate not only the best practices in hedge fund due diligence but results in an informative, interesting, and entertaining read that reminds me of the case study classics cited above and makes the book superior to the vast majority of "how to" books.

The title, "Hedge Fund Due Diligence" is very functional and, admittedly, not particularly scintillating. When ordering the book, I feared that the writing would be quite dry and technical, thus it came as a pleasant surprise to find the writing to be quite witty as evidenced, at the outset, by the acknowledgements section at the beginning of the book, which reminded me of Dave Eggers' brilliant author's note introducing his first memoir "A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius."

The book details the areas to examine and the steps to take when conducting due diligence of hedge funds and hedge fund managers. Most chapters focus on a particular type of due diligence such as the examination of public records or analysis of credit searches with practical insight into the accuracy and value of each type of due diligence action.

Would I recommend this entire book to the general populace? No, though the first few chapters and the concluding chapter are sufficiently informative and entertaining for the person with slightly more than a layperson's knowledge of, or casual interest in, hedge funds. However, this book is an essential tool for any fund manager that invests in hedge funds or any high net worth individual considering making a major investment in hedge funds.

I have worked for Randy Shain, and have known him for years. A constant subject of our thousands of conversations has been how to do the best possible job of acquiring and processing good information.

A lot of his competitors are pleased to provide oodles of records and listings that may or may not lead to sound investments. Randy has spent his career perfecting the kinds of research that actually give you a solid and reasoned grasp of an executive's business past -- history shows that's among the very best factors in determining their future. If you want solid information, you want to use the techniques described in this book.

Randy Shain's book is an essential tool for anyone interested in the process of performing background checks on hedge fund managers. Randy has written about the processes that are necessary to conduct this type of due diligence. The book is very detailed, leaving nothing out about the procedures his team performs on the hedge fund manager. At times it is almost too detailed, explaining explicitly how some specific searches are performed. However, Randy often interjects amusing anecdotes or opinions to keep the book interesting and lively. These often involve stories of how people who fail to perform his recommended steps do not discover crucial facts about the manager that could be a determining factor in whether or not they invest with that manager.

The book's title is a bit of a misnomer, as it covers only the background check process and does not cover the entire due diligence process that sophisticated investors need to follow. However, Randy makes it quite clear within a few paragraphs that he does not attempt to describe the whole due diligence process.

It is likely that Randy's firm has run more hedge fund background checks than any other firm in the industry, making him an expert in regards to performing background checks on hedge fund managers. This is a must-read book for all investors in hedge funds.

Hedging has always tempted the investors and the boom of hedge funds on the market has cought us the academic world unprepared just like the era of Tatcher and Reagan that has created tatcharism and reaganomics. This study is one of the few in this sphere but certainly one of the best for giving knowledge in the area of hedge funds and funds of hedge funds. This can be a excellent handbook for lots of emerging market economies, where people has suffered from lots of financial robberies - first by the communist party and then by their pyramidal creations.
- Dr. Georgi Smatrakalev, Florida Atlantic Univeristy, USA

Working in the FOF industry I am constantly looking for new academic and practitioner research. This book has a good mix between the two. Most of the articles focus on a quantitative approach but there are also chapters that have a qualitative mix to them. I highly suggest it for anyone interested in the FOF industry from the experienced to newcomers. The articles are split into sections where some are appealing to investors performing due-diligence on prospective investments in a FOF, some on monitoring existing investments, and some on constructing FOF portfolios which will appeal to FOF managers. So there is something available for people who are looking to invest in FOFs and something for FOFs themselves to see how outsiders will conduct due-diligence on them, where they need to improve, and cutting edge portfolio construction techniques.

The book is split into four parts: the first finds out the distinctiveness of performance for funds of hedge funds (alpha, persistence, factor decomposition, portfolio optimization). The second part deals with diversification, selection, allocation and hedge fund indices where correlations effects are analysed among different managing styles. Thirdly, some essays are devoted to construction, and statistical properties of funds of hedge funds, such as distributional characteristics, and higher-moment performance characteristics. Finally, the volume investigates specific items such as monitoring risk, due diligence and special classes of funds of funds, where one of the main problems is to implement quantitative methodologies to select the hedge funds. The book is a must-read for those who are looking for an edge in applying the more sophisticated approaches that have recently been developed in the hedge funds industry.
Giampaolo Gabbi, University of Siena and SDA Bocconi, Italy

This books in unique in Finance. Each chapter presents a major achievement, a practical success which permits the reader further progress in truly understanding the very arcanes surrounding the world of hedge fund investing.

Carefully prepared, the authors provide online additional documentation and on-line help to readers at:

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No must-have but this one!

I first saw this book by chance in the Library of Congress. After some minutes I found it so comprehensive and educative I fell in love with it! The book solves central problems regarding risk measuring and portfolio optimization with alternative investments, everything explained clearly in the chapters, supported with extensive mathematical appendices. A jewel for all professionals in the hedge fund industry, specially for quant researchers.

I cannot understand why it has not been translated to english, this book has no peer in financial literature.

I spend a lot of time reading about hedge fund regulations and I give this book a thumbs up. I even promote it through my website as a great book for those who need to learn a lot about hedge fund regulations.

Richard Wilson

Not only is this a bible of hedge fund regulation, it is a good introduction to US securities regulation, private placements, and blue sky laws, as it is more clearly written, user friendly, and succinct than most law treatises. It has a lot of breath, and just enough depth so that you find your answers without getting too bogged down. One of the best "hit the hot spots" securities law books I have ever owned. Other treatises usually vague and useless and just regurgitate the statute itself without actually explaining - this one actually analyzes without being too pedantic. Practice-oriented.

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I used this book for my preparations towards CAIA Level 1 exam. And I am impressed. Mr. Anson is an authority and this is truely a great book for Alternative Investment aspirants.

If you want to have a very solid grasp of any of the following alternative investment approaches then this is the book you should turn to -

Hedge funds
Commodity and managed futures
Private equity (5 catagories)
....Venture Capital
....LBOs
....Mezzannine Financing
....Distressed Debt

....CrossOver/Interval/PIPE and PEPE funds
Credit derivatives
Corporate Governance

Mr. Anson helps you build strong fundamentals. Actually he clearly explains what constitutes Alternative Assets(Aha !!!) as against fundamental and/or capital assets and what is meant by alternative investment strategies.

This is followed by a rigorous analysis of the topics listed above in that order.

I particularly enjoyed his coverage of Hedge Funds. He explains each of the 10 Hedge Fund strategies in a systematic fashion. From a variety of angles including Market(S&P500), Risk, Regulatory, Due Diligence/Operational/Administrative perspective.

The coverage of Commodity Derivatives is also superb. Although confined to 4 chapters this coverage is sufficient to gain an intermediate level insight into the Commodities.

The coverage for Private Equity is less comprehensive(but good) compared to it's actual scope in real world. I particularly expected a more rigorous coverage for LBOs.

Although I did not touch credit derivatives and CorpGov I could tell you for sure that these topics must have been covered well.
As I read 19 out of 22 chapters.

To put it in a nutshell - This is a very good book for Hedge fund aspirants and prospective Alternative investment professionals.

For more info about CAIA please visit www.caia.org.

What this book is:
A fairly comprehensive high level overview of the hedge fund industry. The book covers operational issues, strategies, and, an investors view point.

What this book is not:
"The secrets" to how hedge funds do what they do. You're not going to find "edge". That book has not ever and will never be written so stop looking.

This is the book that was used in my MBA Alternative Investments class. Out of all the books I've looked at on Amazon on the subject, this book does the best job of actually explaining what a hedge fund is and the challenges they face.

Most books on the subject tend to be overly simplistic and written just so the publisher can make buck. This book is an intellectually honest look at the subject. If you are thinking about starting your own fund and have no experience actually working for a hedge fund this is a good place to start your research.

I sincerely enjoyed and appreciated this book. Prior to getting employed in a hedge fund I read this book and it provides a great basic look at what exactly a hedge fund is. It's written in plain English and is short - so you're not surrounded by financial engineering terms at all. Neufeld talks about the differences between hedge funds and mutual funds, in addition to addressing the myths surrounding exploding hedge funds. She also goes into hedge fund investing styles and investing risks. Each fund likes a different risk profile and she discusses this. She'll also explain fee structure of hedge funds. The caveat is that don't expect to take your cash and start investing in hedge funds as if they are mutual funds. Hedge funds required a minimum $1 million in capital. So the headline "How to Profit in Any Market" is quite deceiving. It should be "How THEY Profit in Any Market."

This is a guide for hedge funds - not a guide on how to get rich. I truly enjoyed it.

This is one of the few thorough books on hedge fund regulation out there. There is a need for more literature in this area but this is one the top 3 hedge fund regulation books around.

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