Vault.com: the most trusted name in career information

Vault Message Board: Investment Management

Topic Name: Fund of funds??
Message Name: Thank you
Date Posted: 03/21/2002
In Reply To: Heels, the "hedge fund consultancy" sounds like a alternative investment shop that invests in hedge funds. Here's how it works: Frist, the fund-of-fund shop collects assets (money from large investors, pension funds, institutional investors and even wealthy individual investors). Second, the fund-of-fund shop structures investment portfolios that invest in several hedge funds, as opposed to individual stocks. For instance, you are an investor and give your cash to a fund-of-fund firm and tell them you want to an aggressive high return product. They will then say "we have this Aggressive Long/Short product that would be perfect for you". Your money then gets thrown into a portfolio that literaly parcels out your cash to all of the hedge funds that have been picked to be in this "Aggressive Long/Short" fund. Make sense? As a due diligence analyst, you'll probably be working to help assess the quality of the hedge funds that are being considered for inclusion into a fund-of-fund product. The difference from being an equity analyst is that you'll be researching hedge fund performance, not individual stock performance. Thus, your metrics will be things like tracking error (standard deviation of a fund's performance relative to a benchmark) and alpha. Go to www.morningstar.com to get a feel for how the mutual fund industry is broken down - style boxes, etc. Hope this helps.
Message: Thanks for the input. It makes sense and the name "fund of funds" should have given it away. What types of people, institutions, etc. invest in these types of funds? Also, what kind of exposure would this position offer? How would MBA programs look at such a position?

Post a Reply to this Message  || Go to the Investment Management Vault Message Board



Recommend this page to a friend