Hedge Fund Market Wizards

Preface

This volume is part of my continuing effort to meet with exceptional traders to better understand the elements underlying their success and what differentiates them from the multitude of pedestrian market participants. The traders interviewed range from the founder of the largest hedge fund in the world, managing $120 billion in assets with 1,400 employees, to a manager running a solo operation with only $50 million in assets. Some of the managers trade from a long-term perspective, holding positions for many months and even years, while others focus on trading horizons as short as a single day. Some managers utilize only fundamental data, others only technical input, and still others combine both. Some of the managers have very high average returns with substantial volatility, while other managers have far more moderate returns, but with much lower volatility.

The one characteristic that all the managers share is that they have demonstrated an ability to generate superior return/risk performance. Because so much of what passes for high returns merely reflects a willingness to take more risk rather than being an indication of skill, I believe that return/risk is a far more meaningful measure than return alone. In fact, the fixation of investors on return without the appropriate consideration of risk is one of the great investment mistakes—but that is a story for another book. One return/risk measure that I have found particularly useful is the Gain to Pain ratio—a statistic ...