Customer Reviews

The Fundamentals of Hedge Fund Management: How to Successfully Launch and Operate a Hedge Fund (Wiley Finance)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is the hedge fund equivalent of late night schemers who sell you expensive guides to tell you how to get rich...and then refers you to hire other professionals and to hire his services.

This book has small amounts of useful information (short descriptions of what various service providers do, very basic legal structures, etc) that could be conveyed in 15 pages (not 141 of repetitive, rah rah fluff). It is just a thinly veiled marketing brochure for the author's other hedge fund "services".

There isn't even a proper description of the author's background or what he's proposing to sell, other than repeated reference to go to his website or email him about every basic piece of information that should be included in the book in the first place. Given the repetitive fluff in the book, he had plenty of space to include all this basic reference material...why didn't he???? why did we pay over 50usd to buy this book???

also the author is clearly not a sophisticated investor. he places proper importance to fund raising, but flat out states that generating alpha is very easy...i don't even know where to begin to mock his attitude. he's giving you advice in a know-it-all, absolutist fashion as if he's done it all, but frankly he runs a newsletter, and provides consulting services which no hard core hedge fund investor whose stated goal is to maximize his income would waste their time on.

Get Fabozzi's Handbook of Alternative Assets instead...much more detailed and useful.

This book is the first one that I've run into that covers the legal and operation aspects of hedge funds - lawyers, administrators, accountants, and what they all do. It covers a lot of subtle but hugely important topics such as ERISA and new issues regulations, patriot act considerations, master-feeder structures and so forth. These are topics that I've not seen elsewhere despite a lot of reading on the sector. There are also a lot of specific companies, names, web addresses, places to go for information, etc. I have been working in London for four years in the hedge fund operations industry, and I did learn some important and useful things that people never tell you.

The book is written a conversationally so it is easy to read, but as a result is somewhat disorganised and mentions new subjects somewhat casually. I would have preferred a more structured approach, where each term is defined with more rigour. Much of the book (perhaps 35%) contains advice about having to deal with being an entrepreneur - finding an office, dealing with assistants - which are hedge-fund startup issues but which are not hedge fund legal/regulatory issues that I was looking for.

The major problem with this book as far as I am concerned is that while the US onshore industry is large, it is still much less than half of the industry. Offshore considerations are covered but more as an afterthought. Corporations, for example are completely left out, and large players such as Citco, the largest hedge fund administrator in the world, is not ever mentioned.

I would also recommend the Handbook of Alternative Assets by Mark Anson, which is sort of the gold standard in the field.

Having read a number of books on the hedge fund industry, this is the first I found that actually explains the logistics of starting a fund - not only the steps but the costs associated with each. Strachman goes to great lengths to debunk what he calls, at one point, the Kevin Costner myth: "If you build it, they will come." Too many of us wanna-be hedge fund operators are listening to the corn fields and not figuring out how to raise that first $10 million, which Strachman assures us will be vastly more difficult than we perceive.

Though the book is brief, only 141 pages, it contains chapters on structuring hedge funds, the service providers you will enlist, accounting issues, discussion of back office operations and the all important, marketing and capital raising. Additionally, Strachman discusses the mentality of the sucessful hedge fund manager and asks, with a wink to Nike, 'Do you have it in you?' That question, in itself, is worth the price of the book.

This is an exceptional book. I'm a 25-year old investment banking analyst in New York who plans on moving to a fund for several years and then potentially exploring the option of starting my own hedge fund. I've been looking for a book that maps out the various logistical steps of how one can do that, and had been surprised that there was nothing out there. This book filled that void, and does a very good job at it. I think there are a lot of people in my situation who know how to invest and think that they can make good returns if given capital, but don't know where to start in terms of finding capital, setting up the legal structures, etc.

Strachman's book covers all the fundamentals of starting your own fund, from the types of service providers you'll need (prime broker, lawyer, accountant, administrator), to the difficulties of the marketing process, to different hedge fund structures, to the sort of qualities you want to look for in an accountant. It's also all-encompassing - after you read it, you come away with the feeling that you have a handle on all the factors that you'll need to consider when launching the fund. The checklist is daunting, but manageable. I came away feeling that given the rewards, it'll be worth a try at some point.

The author's experience in the business is also particularly helpful. His case studies and commentary throughout the book do a great job in dispelling some of the mistaken beliefs startup funds have. As examples, he makes it clear that a track record is not a substitute for a well-coordinated marketing strategy, picking a good accountant is particularly important, and using well-known service providers is probably worth the extra cost because of the comfort it'll provide to prospective investors. It's very apparent that Strachman has seen a fair number of funds succeed and fail, and that experience has allowed him to write a very helpful book to the aspiring fund manager.

Save your money and get a better book on how to start up a business. This book is NOT about Hedge Funds in any depth. It is about the basics in starting a business. WOW, he should write a book on marketing. He got me to pay $57.00 for a "basic" how to start a business book!

I purchased Mr. Strachman's book for $95 and it was absolutely worth its cost. Providing a detailed overview of how to start a hedge fund, the author conveys a detailed perspective on the industry that only an expert can provide. I have found that many hedge fund books fall short of outlining management strategies, while only discussing investment advice. This book bridges that gap and provides a very down to earth perspective on the management issues behind creating a successful hedge fund. I would recommend this to everyone interested in the hedge fund world; potential investors, entrepreneurs, and the like.

I've worked in finance for almost ten years, as a trader on a desk and at a hedge fund. While I believed that I had a firm handle on how the industry worked, when deciding how to launch my own fund, I discovered that I didn't know as much about setup as I thought. Strachman's book offers a well rounded overview of the different aspects of setting up a fund. His approach and writing is neither overtly complicated or watered down. His views on cost, timelines, and mindset are spot on.

Some people have criticized this book on the basis that (1) it doesn't provide any strategies for managing money; and (2) it de-emphasizes alpha generation for operational aspects.

First, this is a book about MANAGEMENT and the OPERATION of hedge funds. It is not intended to be a book about hedge fund strategies. If you want a book about hedge fund strategies buy one of the many books available on THAT subject. Moreover, if you need a book on what strategies to pursue perhaps you should come up with ideas of your own. If someone has a strategy that works they are not going to give that proprietary knowledge away in a book.

This book is one of the few that offer information and instruction on how to start a fund from the operational point of view. Strachman is quite correct in stressing over and over again that if you build it they will not necessarily come. You can have the best strategy in the world but without assets to manage or a proper marketing strategy you will get no where. Some people have taken this to mean that Strachman is advocating that alpha generation is easy. I don't think that's what he's getting at. Rather I think he's stressing the often overlooked challenges of starting a fund, not investing assets.

See the TOC for the areas covered in the book. It is not a long book and at times I wish there was even more in depth discussion, but Strachman covers the basics well. This is a good place to start for anyone wanting to get started.

Dan Strachman's book is a true roadmap to understanding the structure of a hedge fund and more importantly how to start one from scratch. Do not let the size of the book fool you. No words are wasted and the author uses a very straight forward appoach to explaining a highly technical business endeavor. I have read a few other books on the topic and this by far gives the clearest presentation of the material. In addition, any questions I still had after reading the book, the author was kind enough to answer directly. The book is well worth the price!

This text is a nice collection of the basic elements required to form a hedge fund. More importantly, it includes some of the more qualitative factors that encourage investors to invest with a particular manager. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of information missing. Specifically, there is no discussion of the specific investment styles different types of investors desire or what exactly they want to see in marketing pitches. The author provides some suggestion of what fund managers should not say to potential investors. This is great. However, the reader gets the sense that the author knows much more than he shares in this book but wants only to provide a carrot to snag clients for his fee-based services.

It is somewhat surprising that Wiley would allow such an expensive [to the reader] piece of advertising material be published under its name. The holes in the book's content are enormous. While there is solid information scattered throughout, so much is missing. In fact, there is no detailed discussion of fund types (global macro, long/short, event, etc) and investor types (endowments, pension funds, family fund, etc). Also missing, are more detailed descriptions of the documents required - both legal and marketing. A better description of what to look for in a prime broker as well as the fee structure would also be helpful.

Oddly, much of the last fourth of the book is collection of basic reference data such as lists of professional service firms. Hence, the text of book is shorter than the page count suggests. When I reached the end, I was a bit surprised as I was expecting more content in even greater detail. The book will have value to beginning hedge fund manager but to be truly useful, it should contain three times as much information.