Managing a Hedge Fund: A Complete Guide to Trading, Business Strategies, Risk Management, and Regulations
This project started as class notes for the Hedge Funds course in the MS Financial Markets program in the Stuart Graduate School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology.  When this course was first taught in the fall of 2002, I could not find one book that covered all of the topics necessary to teach a comprehensive graduate course on Hedge Funds. This book is an attempt to summarize research from all areas of the industry, allowing readers a one-stop access to hedge fund information.Therefore, it is my hope that more MBA and MS programs will start teaching courses on hedge funds, and that this book will be very helpful in their teaching process.  This book is written at an intermediate level, presuming prior knowledge of options and futures markets as well as Markowitz style investment theory.Professionals from all areas of the alternative investment arena may also find this project to be helpful.  Regulators, brokers and bankers may have advanced knowledge of standard financial products, but have been unable to keep up with the phenomenal growth of the opaque hedge funds industry.Perhaps the most important audience could be those who currently manage, or aspire to manage, hedge funds or funds of hedge funds.  Hedge fund managers may find new ways of analyzing the risk and reward of their trades, or be able to offer new funds in another style area.  Funds of funds managers need to understand all styles of trading, and it is hoped that this book will allow these managers to become fluent in all strategies.Finally, this project hopes to demystify hedge funds for investors.  Hedge funds should be seen as a way to diversify a portfolio, reducing risks and offering investors returns that can offset losses in their traditional investment portfolio.  Investors should learn the reasons for the lack of transparency for hedge funds, and that hedge funds don’t have to be seen as an inherently risky investment style.