Interview With Victor Niederhoffer

Victor Niederhoffer is one of the more colorful figures in the investment world. He earned a Ph.D. from the U of Chicago in the 60s (where he regularly sparred with proponents of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis), was a national squash champion, and has seen it all, from being one of the top investment managers in the country to running a couple of hedge funds into the ground (and bouncing back to start others).

He wrote quite a few pieces on a site he started in the late 90's called DailySpeculations.com. One of them actually got me started on a research project (it didn't pan out, but it was still a good idea). He's also written a couple of very interesting books.

If you'd like to read more about him, here's a very good piece, compliments of NewYorker.com. It's pretty long (12 pages), but IMO well worth the time.

Sunday Link Dump - More on PE and Hedge Funds

The semester continues its march to the last day of classes (I have a total of 7 teaching days left until finals). So, I'm in my office on a Sunday getting ready for the final push. I leave for the Eastern Finance Association Meetings in New Orleans Wednesday after class, so I have to get a bit ahead of things (I still haven't written my quiz for my sub, or finished my presentation, or even started on my discussants comments).

So while I toil away, here are three links (again, on hedge funds and PE firms - I seem to be in a rut) to keep you busy:

All About Alpha interviews Tom Schneeweis of UMASS on hedge funds, alpha, and risk. Here's the money quote: "I really do believe that most hedge fund managers want to believe they are wizards. When in reality, all they are doing is accepting certain types of risk. "

According to this Fortune magazine article on the distribution of PE firms, the majority of PE funds are well under$1 Billion in size - in fact, the average fund (once the top ten are excluded) has an average size of $180 million, if you don't count the top 10 firms.

Here's an overview of hedge funds (in PDF format), compliments of Michael Covel.

Enough blogging - my grading beckons.