Guide to Hedge Funds: What They Are, What They Do, Their Risks, Their Advantages

by Philip Coggan

Hedge fund managers are the new "masters of the universe." The best earn more than $1 billion a year and are so sought after that they can afford to turn investor money away. The funds they run have, to some extent, established an alternative financial system, replacing banks as lenders to risky companies, acting as providers of liquidity to markets and insurers of last resort for risks such as hurricanes, and replacing pension funds and mutual funds as the most significant investors in many companies—even in some cases buying companies outright. The revised and updated second edition of this lively guide sheds much needed light on the world of hedge funds by explaining what they are, what they do, who the main players are, the regulations affecting them, the arguments as to whether they are a force for good or bad, and what the future holds for them. "More people have a view about hedge funds than know about them. Philip Coggan bridges the knowledge gap in this clearly written guide. Every chapter is a goldmine of information and analysis, making it easy to learn about hedge funds. No investor, no investment adviser, no trustee, no dinner-table conversationalist should express opinions on the sector until they have read this book."
— Elroy Dimson , BGI Professor of Investment Management, London Business School "While much has been written about hedge fund strategies and their (occasionally spectacular) failures, we have not yet seen a general primer to help the investor understand the world of hedge funds. Philip Coggan presents us with exactly that—a well-written, succinct summary of a world we all need to understand better."
— Rob Arnott , Chairman of Research Affiliates and Editor Emeritus of the Financial Analysts Journal

Genres: Finance, Business, Nonfiction, Economics

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 31, 2008

About the author

Philip Coggan is a British columnist and author of books on economics. He currently writes for The Economist. Previously, he worked for the Financial Times for 20 years.

Reviews

[Balhau · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book about the world of trading. For those (well this includes me) who think that people with a bunch of milions (like 5 or 10) dollars are rich people say hello to corporations that manage billions of dollars in assets. Well this is capitalism at the highest level. I must confess that I felt a little depressed when reading about this world. But, regardless the feelings you might have, this is a very educational book. The contents here presented offer you an oportunity to review your concept of money and how the big financial corporations work. This is, however, a very taxonomical work. You'll be injected with a plethora of concepts and financial instruments and respective variations. For this reason is to hope that you might feel the need for a second reading (as in my case, as my academic formation is not economics).

[Saul Shimmin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great primer for anyone interested, or working in the periphery of, the hedge fund sector. The book provides a decent background to hedge funds, the existing strategies, typical fund structure and how hedge funds are changing.

It would be interesting to read Coggan’s thoughts after this year as the book seems to be have been written in the post 2008 period.

[bookreader]

Anything Coggan writes is worth reading; he's one of the best financial journalists in the world. (I still rue his departure from the FT.) If you're new to hedge funds, this is a lucid, balanced overview. If you work in the industry, you may glean a fact or two (though not more), but will certainly appreciate his uncanny intimations of the hedge fund cataclysm of 2008.

[Tenio Latev · Rating 3 out of 5]

tenio latev
a well structured lecture on the mysteries of hedge fund investing! good indight in some of the commonly used strategies!