Investing in Hedge Funds, Revised and Updated Edition [Hardcover]

Joseph G. Nicholas (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bloomberg Financial | Publication Date: August 1, 2005

Hedge funds are in the news and on the minds of sophisticated investors more than ever. Investors have questions about how the funds are structured, where the assets are allocated, and whether hedge funds can truly act as a hedge against market risk. The answers are all here in Investing in Hedge Funds.

Until recently, much of what makes hedge funds tick has been closely guarded--the intellectual property of Wall Street's investment elite. In this updated and revised text, Joseph G. Nicholas, founder and chairman of the leading industry information provider Hedge Fund Research, Inc., travels inside the hedge fund marketplace to explain the alternative investment strategies of top fund managers, providing clear descriptions of how to access these funds and where they're headed. It's a complete guide that everyone investing in hedge funds should study closely.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book tells all. It explains how [hedge funds] work. This is a serious and important book on the subject and must be read by any serious investor." (Tradersworld magazine)

"Nicholas has done an invaluable service in laying out exactly how hedge funds work, who runs them, how they incorporate, their benefits and risks, and how to go about selecting one." (TheStreet.com)

"I have yet to find a book which does such a good job of demystifying an area which has been kept deliberately opaque (with good reason) by its players." (AIMA (Alternative Investment Management Association) Newsletter)

Review

"In light of the dramatic increase of investments in hedge funds, the recent media attention, and the widespread need to better understand these complex strategies, Joe Nicholas has created a key investor guide to hedge funds, including the unique and valuable perspective of having top hedge fund managers describe what they do in their own words."
—Timothy J. Leach
Chief Investment Officer, U.S. Trust Corp.

"Investing in Hedge Funds is the first comprehensive study of what hedge funds are and how they work. This is an essential book for all investors curious about alternative investment strategies. Joseph Nicholas details the range of investment strategies pursued by hedge fund managers and writes in a clear, lucid style. I highly recommend this book to academics and professionals who want to learn about hedge funds."
—Professor William N. Goetzmann
Director, International Center for Finance, Yale School of Management

"Joseph Nicholas provides an extraordinary analysis of hedge funds that clearly explains what they are and how they work. This book is a must-read for anyone looking to reduce investment risks and increase performance."
—William B. Nicholson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Capital Resource Advisors

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Bloomberg Press; 2nd, Revised and Updated Edition edition (August 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576601846
• ISBN-13: 978-1576601846
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #620,270 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book overall, November 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Investing in Hedge Funds (Hardcover)

In the recent flood of often useless books aimed at investors this book stands out as a little gift. It provides a clear and detailed introduction to hedge funds useful to investors and to anybody with an interest in understanding how hedge funds work. The book is math-free, but thinking is not optional. I like the summary of hedge fund strategies and the description of their returns and weights in the universe of hedge funds. Unfortunately, one has to hope that the chapter and the charts will be updated frequently for they will be soon obsolete. As this book definitely deserves to see more editions, I hope that the author will go through the trouble to include both more examples and more details for each of the eleven strategies. That would definitely make the book more appealing to those readers with sophisticated backgrounds and useful to be used in classrooms as well.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Only for the most basic hdege fund newbie, February 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Investing in Hedge Funds (Hardcover)

This book had a lot of promising reviews, but what a deception! The typography is very bad, some pages are writen so big that 2 pages could be condensed into 1. The overall layout looks like it was taken from a glorified powerpoint presentation...

The book reviews different strategies hedge funds can employ in one chapter. Thereafter one complete chapter is devoted to each strategy. However, you don't learn much more by reading the detailed chapter. If you have even a basic understanding of different hedge fund techniques such as market-neutral, merger arbitrage or global macro, then you will probably not learn anything new from this book.

The more interesting part of the book is the last part where the author tries to forecast where the industry is going. However, this is full of known truths such as "hedge funds will continue to exist and take on more importance"... duh! Maybe the book is simply too old and should be revised?

Don't waste your time and money on this one.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read!, March 20, 2001

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Investing in Hedge Funds (Hardcover)

While this book is meant to serve as an introduction to the complex world of hedge funds, hedge fund managers and hedge fund investors (in short, the hedge fund dynamic), it is decidedly not of the For Dummies family that currently dominates the do-it-yourself investment section of the book store. This is a highly sophisticated look at what has become one of the most exciting sectors of the investment world. If you have some knowledge of finance and its terminology, and you want to know what a hedge fund is, what kinds of strategies most hedge fund managers use and whether or not you'd want to or be able to invest in hedge funds, we ... recommend this highly specific book to you. On the other hand, if you just want to gain some insights into the investment world, you'd be better off picking up the financial section of the newspaper. Hedge funds are serious and so is Joseph G. Nicholas' book. (... note: Despite the 1999 copyright date, the book makes no reference to Long-Term Capital Management, the hedge fund that collapsed in 1998, nearly bringing about a global financial crisis.)