Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Does Your Hedge Fund Manager Have Time to Talk?

A medium-security facility at Butner
Prompted by an upcoming book on Connecticut's notorious Ponzi artist, Joe Nocera of the NY Times went to the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina to talk with the subject, Sam Israel III.

The manager of the mostly mythical Bayou funds said hedge fund investors should  investigate before they invest:
Seek as much transparency as possible. If they do not understand exactly how a manager is making money, do not invest. If there is a secret process that cannot be explained, run. Go see the organization yourself, talk to the employees. The manager cannot see everyone or he could not be making money; if he has all the time in the world for you, that is a flag.
Good advice, but unlikely to stop investors for stumbling into the next Bayou. Sam Israel's approach, short-term trading of stocks, sounded simple enough. Who knew his accountant was as fictitious as his returns?

1 comment:

Becca said...

Thanks for the good tips provided here! I agree that we have to have an action plan in place before making the offer and we should be sure about it…
Catering Melbourne