Alpha, Marketing Semantics and the Erstwhile Mongolian Military Officer
Aug 31st, 2006 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry TrendsBy: Alpha Male
Alpha Male’s global-explorer brother recently returned from a trekking expedition in northern Mongolia. On his first night in that nation’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, he got into an argument with his cab driver about the fare from airport. Thankfully, a man dressed as a high-ranking member of Mongolia’s military stepped into ”assist” with the disagreement. He managed to talk the cabbie down and brokered a peace deal between my brother and his chauffeur.
The episode seemed to have concluded as my brother checked into his hotel. However, the Mongolian “military officer” had followed him into the lobby, was chatting with the hotel owner. He followed my brother upstairs to his room proposing that he provide “help” to my brother in exchange for more of his coveted US dollars.
Any of you who have traveled in the developing world know the con: Tourist gets into trouble with locals, is ”rescued” by a passer-by, and falls prey to their rescuer’s own agenda.
This strategy is also used in the marketing of investment services. Often it is far more subtle. But occasionally, as Credit Suisse illustrates to us below, it can be quite transparent…. More…
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[…] Unfortunately, this article over-simplifies his position and draws on various stereo-types. Notably, the author says that portable alpha and absolute return investors are simply ”caught up in the latest investment craze”, but then positions Ineichen’s ideas as a subset of absolute return investing itself. Reminds Alpha Male of his brother’s recent shenanigans in Mongolia (read post). […]