Are Hedge Funds Worth It?

Hedge funds have been receiving a bad rep over the past few years. Funds like those of Bear Sterns lost Billions in investor capital by making bad, overleveraged bets. And they charge a whopping 2% front-end load and 20% of the profits. Compared to many other well performing funds, this is outrageously high.

Is this enormous fee worth it? Here's a very interesting email I received today:

This could be the worst hedge fund in the world... Jonathan Wood, a former UBS trader, founded hedge fund SRM Global Master Fund two years ago. Now he's bust. Wood took positions in Bear Stearns, the defunct investment bank; Countrywide Financial, the posterboy of the mortgage debacle; and Northern Rock, the U.K. bank that experienced a run on its assets.

SRM Global Master Fund raised $3 billion in 2006 and is down 85% through July. Investors agreed to a five-year lockup, so they haven't been able to redeem. See what you get for "2 and 20"?

Makes the -15% year to date return of the US stock market look pretty stellar in comparison! I guess sometimes simpler investments are better!