The main point of the article - that most mutual funds underperform the index funds is so widely known by now that I'm surprised to see it reposted here in 2014

The main point of the article - that most mutual funds underperform the index funds is so widely known by now that I'm surprised to see it reposted here in 2014. "The high failure rate should come as no surprise, given how hedge funds operate. There’s no working model, so they vary widely, but the basic idea is that they rely on risky, untraditional investment strategies—ranging from arbitrage to taking over floundering companies, as Lampert did—to make big money fast. " No, that's not the basic idea at all. And untraditional doesn't have to mean risky (a market-neutral strategy is an example).