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"can only be used by accredited investors" "3.6% of assets under management" Hold on. Let me take another swig of coffee so I can decorate my screen with it.

"can only be used by accredited investors" "3.6% of assets under management" Hold on. Let me take another swig of coffee so I can decorate my screen with it. How can this possibly be true? This would mean that there is some form of accreditation for investing that allows someone to qualify who thinks that a 3.6% fee is a good investment. Who are their investors? Do they know this? I have no special access to the markets (no investor status, no massive sums under management) and I pay no more than 0.07% in fees, in total. Were I resident in the US it would be about 20% less. No wonder they're raking it in.

austenallred 9y ago
All accredited investor means is you have $1m+ in net worth or $250k+ in salary. Out of the range of the average young American, but small peanuts for most people worrying about asset mabagement
- headmelted 9y ago
  I'm slightly less appalled now. It still baffles me though, as common sense would seem to indicate that having money and paying 3.6% are mutually exclusive. Thanks for clearing that up. (If only i had a cloth to clear my screen up too..)
  - jsolson 9y ago
    If you have the degree of money to invest and you believe the expected the net return exceeds your other investments, you very well might make the bet. We are, after all, talking about hedge funds. How much variance are you willing to tolerate?
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
stouset 9y ago
In order to be an accredited investor as an individual, you need (quoted from Wikipedia) "a net worth of at least $1,000,000, excluding the value of one's primary residence, or have income at least $200,000 each year for the last two years (or $300,000 combined income if married) and have the expectation to make the same amount this year." That's it.
Kholo 9y ago
Their investors don't know what else to do with their cash. Getting rich and doing something with the riches involve two different skill sets that most people can't master in one life time.
- headmelted 9y ago
  A lot of people regard it as a solved problem. (Stick it in in an index fund?). Obviously you'd never advise someone to put all their eggs in one basket, but in this case, you're comparing identical baskets - and one of them as a hole in the bottom.
  - sudhirj 9y ago
    Aren't hedge funds often thematically a form of insurance? If I had a million, I'd probably put 80% in index funds, 10% in hedge funds that were shorting companies that would be negatively affected by global warming, 10% in hedge funds that were betting on another recession.
    - ForHackernews 9y ago
      At one time, they were a "hedge", but the term is an anachronism today.
  - pedrocr 9y ago
    How is buying 3000+ of the worlds largest companies "putting eggs in the same basket"? Buying some bonds and real estate funds can be nice as well but the diversification benefits are usually overstated. Worldwide stocks are already incredibly diversified.
    - nostalgiac 9y ago
      An Index fund can refer to one of the many many different types of weighted/diverse indexes that exist. Dumping all your money into an ASX200 Index Fund is a lot different to putting it all into Vanguards Total World Stock fund.
lordnacho 9y ago
> "3.6% of assets under management" It's not an agreement to pay someone 3.6%. The author probably means that since you get 2 and 20, with a bit of performance it ends up being in that ballpark.
ForHackernews 9y ago
Some investors are in fact wising up and moving away from hedge funds: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/26/hedge-funds-suffer-207-billion-net-outflows-in-june.html http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/26/hedge-funds-suffer-207-billio... http://thebamalliance.com/blog/hedge-funds-miss-the-mark/ http://thebamalliance.com/blog/hedge-funds-miss-the-mark/ The trick is that some hedge funds do produce outsize returns, and every rich customer wants to think he's going to pick the winner. All in all, charging a percentage of AUM is a pretty neat scam they've got going for themselves.

austenallred 9y ago

All accredited investor means is you have $1m+ in net worth or $250k+ in salary. Out of the range of the average young American, but small peanuts for most people worrying about asset mabagement

headmelted 9y ago
I'm slightly less appalled now. It still baffles me though, as common sense would seem to indicate that having money and paying 3.6% are mutually exclusive. Thanks for clearing that up. (If only i had a cloth to clear my screen up too..)
- jsolson 9y ago
  If you have the degree of money to invest and you believe the expected the net return exceeds your other investments, you very well might make the bet. We are, after all, talking about hedge funds. How much variance are you willing to tolerate?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

stouset 9y ago

In order to be an accredited investor as an individual, you need (quoted from Wikipedia) "a net worth of at least $1,000,000, excluding the value of one's primary residence, or have income at least $200,000 each year for the last two years (or $300,000 combined income if married) and have the expectation to make the same amount this year." That's it.

Kholo 9y ago

Their investors don't know what else to do with their cash. Getting rich and doing something with the riches involve two different skill sets that most people can't master in one life time.

headmelted 9y ago
A lot of people regard it as a solved problem. (Stick it in in an index fund?). Obviously you'd never advise someone to put all their eggs in one basket, but in this case, you're comparing identical baskets - and one of them as a hole in the bottom.
- sudhirj 9y ago
  Aren't hedge funds often thematically a form of insurance? If I had a million, I'd probably put 80% in index funds, 10% in hedge funds that were shorting companies that would be negatively affected by global warming, 10% in hedge funds that were betting on another recession.
  - ForHackernews 9y ago
    At one time, they were a "hedge", but the term is an anachronism today.
- pedrocr 9y ago
  How is buying 3000+ of the worlds largest companies "putting eggs in the same basket"? Buying some bonds and real estate funds can be nice as well but the diversification benefits are usually overstated. Worldwide stocks are already incredibly diversified.
  - nostalgiac 9y ago
    An Index fund can refer to one of the many many different types of weighted/diverse indexes that exist. Dumping all your money into an ASX200 Index Fund is a lot different to putting it all into Vanguards Total World Stock fund.

lordnacho 9y ago

> "3.6% of assets under management" It's not an agreement to pay someone 3.6%. The author probably means that since you get 2 and 20, with a bit of performance it ends up being in that ballpark.

ForHackernews 9y ago

Some investors are in fact wising up and moving away from hedge funds: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/26/hedge-funds-suffer-207-billion-net-outflows-in-june.html http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/26/hedge-funds-suffer-207-billio... http://thebamalliance.com/blog/hedge-funds-miss-the-mark/ http://thebamalliance.com/blog/hedge-funds-miss-the-mark/ The trick is that some hedge funds do produce outsize returns, and every rich customer wants to think he's going to pick the winner. All in all, charging a percentage of AUM is a pretty neat scam they've got going for themselves.