Facile parallels notwithstanding, neither the argument Druckenmiller made at Sohn nor any other good reasons that may now exist for shorting the Aussie have a lot to do with the case against the pound in 1992. That tug-of-war occurred in a unique context, not here replicated.

One take-away from David Stockman's new best selling book is that the phrase "hedge fund" may well be on its way beyond descriptive significance. In the public realm, a "hedge fund" is now as much a metaphor as is a "Trojan horse." It is becoming a metaphor for any institution's failure to hedge.

“It was quite convenient to blame the Hedge Funds. They were an easy target, in that they were super-rich, a lot of them were American, and they were presented as bad people. They were blamed for what was happening to our banking system, which in reality was complete rubbish.”--Kate Walsh, Sunday Times, 2010.

One of the long-term trends that the hedge fund industry, and many others, face is the fact that the new media have unpredictable and sometimes unsettling consequences for many ways of doing business, including ways of finding alpha. The case of Barclays v. Fly on the Wall illustrates some of those consequences.

"Bernie" is back in the headlines, squawking from the jailhouse about how the banks and others should have seen his scheme for what it was - and actually may have. The broader question is whether suspicions about Madoff's bogus strategy would have made a difference.

Hedge funds and the mass media have always had a love/hate relationship (with emphasis on the "hate" part). But it turns out that an analysis of media word choices - and the choices of words in funds' own press releases - may contain valuable information.

A new report on the challenges faced by the hedge fund industry reveals some somewhat positive news: that hedge funds weren't the renegade, levered up, ready-to-destroy-the-global-financial-markets types that many believed.

The administrator in charge of distributing the frozen assets of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. announced last week that it had struck a deal to return some $11 billion to creditors. But how exactly are those assets being valued?

Earlier this week a widely-read columnist provided a wonderful example of the challenges faced by those who wish to ban hedge funds - a lack of hard data.

Were Credit Default Swaps of symptom or a cause of AIG's downfall? Was AIG really a "hedge fund"? These questions and more are addressed in a new paper by the traffic cop in the "intersection of law and finance".

The so-called "D-Day" is here once again. With about 45 days left until the end of Q1, market watchers turn an eye toward hedge fund redemptions as a possible explanation for all that ails markets.

When we read some hedge fund headlines, we are forced to ask ourselves a critical question: WTF? (that's "Whither the facts...")

Now everyone from pensions to governments to legitimate hedge funds are in the Ponzi game. Given this, we guess it shouldn't be that hard for the SEC to rack-up the score.

Barton Biggs says the hedge fund industry isn't coming to an end after all. What if he's right?

Back in the old days (like, in August), shutting a "redemption gate" used to be a form of punishment. Now it's more like "tough love".

What faces the asset management after the dust settles? Hopefully, a sober and renewed examination of alpha across all investments - not a renunciation of it.

There's no question that it's rough seas ahead for hedge funds. But the industry will weather this storm better than many think.

The acquisition of Reuters by Thomson sounded the death knell last week for one of the industry's first online portals.

Politicians have been doing it for years. But now journalists have begun to switch teams - joining the very hedge funds on which they used to report.

What's the difference between the hedge fund industry and Tom Hanks' character in the movie "Castaway"? Only one is clinging to hope.

A popular columnist says hedge funds might be the "next shoe to drop" as a result of the credit crunch - prompting one chapter of AIMA to speak out.

Canada’s National Post reports that the FBI is now warning of hedge fund fraud (“FBI Warns of Hedge Fund Fraud“).  But in actuality, FBI Director Robert Meuller gave a 2,000 word speech last week in which “hedge fund” appeared only once – after a lengthy discussion corporate fraud, public corruption, insider trading, mortgage fraud and [...]

A widely-syndicated column about the 130/30 "fad" misses the mark and sets the stage for years of public confusion regarding short-extension strategies.

There is little debate that top hedge fund managers make astronomical amounts of money. But are such amounts actually that new? If not, why are they an issue now?

The closest thing hedge fund managers have to a global trade association is apparently fed up with reading how its members are at the root of all that is evil.

It's deja vu all over again this month as one early-reporting database pronounces that hedge fund assets - at least in one category - shrank last month.

It's Halloween and you know what that means: spooky stories of haunted hedge funds and private equity slashers. This year's tale is presented by the London Daily Telegraph.

Two articles this week aim to provide a "balanced" view of 1X0/X0 funds. One because its analysis is dispassionate and one because it tries its darndest to create controversy.

The New York Times concludes that there is little risk of a dot-com-style implosion of the hedge fund industry. We generally agree with this assertion. But recent hedge fund IPOs add a new dimension that now gives us pause.

"Alpha centric" turns out to be more than just a goofy term used by us as a placeholder until something better comes along.

In a lesson on how rumors start, The New York Post reports this week that the Fed has issued an "unusual warning". This would be a great story, if only it was true...

On Wednesday, May 2, Reuters ran a story about a New York Fed report on hedge fund correlation. But it appears that Reuters and several of its customers were a little to hasty going to print.

Alpha Male takes issue with Business Week's apples to oranges comparison of hedge fund and long-only fees.

“Trouble is bubbling up for two more hedge funds. First, hot on the heels of Amaranth Advisors meltdown…” Institutional Investor reports on a couple of “troubled” hedge funds.  But although they are compared to Amaranth, which lost a king’s ransom, neither fund actually lost that much money for investors.  In fact, the only ones who lost [...]

By: Allan Sloan, Newsweek Published: October 30 Issue Newsweek’s Allan Sloan, “The Cruncher”, offers up some pretty weak evidence this week that a bubble exists in hedge funds: “Day after day, I hear about hedge funds’ growing power—we’re up to almost 9,000 funds with $1.225 trillion in assets, according to Hedge Fund Research, from about 3,600 with $456 billion [...]