Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons is the oldest independent publishing company in the United States. With offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, Wiley is globally committed to developing and marketing print and electronic products and services for our customers’ professional and personal knowledge and understanding.
The Wiley Finance series contains books written specifically for finance and investment professionals as well as sophisticated individual investors and their financial advisors. Book topics range from portfolio management to e-commerce, risk management, financial engineering, valuation and financial instrument analysis, as well as much more.
For a list of available titles, visit our website at www.WileyFinance.com.
Cover image: (top) © Rawpixel / Shutterstock; (bottom) © isak55 / Shutterstock
Cover design: Wiley
Copyright © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993, or fax (317) 572-4002.
Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
ISBN 978-1-119-21035-1 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-119-21039-9 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-1-119-21037-5 (ePub)
This book is designed to provide an overview of alternative investments and, in particular, instill in readers a working knowledge of that portion of alternative investments known as hedge fund investing.
The second edition of this book includes important updates related to industry flows and performance, plus new material covering the exciting new world of hedged mutual funds, secondary trading in hedge fund investments, and more information about the various techniques and instruments used by hedge fund managers to finance their portfolios.
The original motivation to write this book was to deliver a holistic view of hedge fund investing. That has not changed. The intention was to provide a cradle-to-grave perspective for first-time investors, for practitioners dealing with hedge funds as clients or counterparties, and for students wishing to learn how the sector operates from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. My personal experiences as a banker, accountant, service provider, investor, and partner in a hedge fund and a fund of hedge funds allows me to deliver some practical insights that I believe will facilitate learning.
The goal for this second edition is to once again present a comprehensive view of the reasons people invest in the sector, discuss how the managers, funds, and strategies interact, and recommend criteria people can use to select managers and funds – all without getting lost in too much detail. The approach is to cover a wide range of material in sufficient detail to familiarize readers with the issues, without getting lost in the multitude of regulations and mathematics needed to fully investigate any single topic. The hope is that by “keeping it simple” readers will learn enough about the asset class and the process of investing to give them confidence to move forward with asking the questions needed to become a great investor. Importantly, one of the goals for this book, if not its primary goal, is to make the asset class accessible and to demystify what is at times presented as an overly complex and esoteric category of investing. My approach is to deliver a balanced discussion of the broad spectrum of information needed to invest in hedge funds; however, it is inevitable that certain sections garner more emphasis than others.
