Hybrid funds gain steam

22Nov05

Riva D. Atlas in the New York Times reports on the launch of a hedge-fund like, mutual fund from JP Morgan and its affiliate Highbridge Capital Management. For a $10,000 minimum investment and 2.45% a year (sans front-end load) investors can get what the co-founder of Highbridge calls, “… the jewel in our crown.” Outsiders are more skeptical:

“There is something to be said for a consistent return, but unless you have an intimate understanding of hedge funds, it’s better to go to school on someone else’s money,” said Roy Weitz, publisher of the Web site Fundalarm.com.

Daniel Gross believes hedge funds, as an asset class, have grown too big and does not think much of the above news.

Brett Duval Fromson a hedge fund-of-funds manager gets the run of the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal. Not surprisingly we get trenchant analysis like: “Stiffer SEC regulation of hedge funds strikes me as a solution in search of a problem.�?