Hedge Fund Investing by Kevin Mirabile - Closing Thoughts
So we made it through all 12 chapters of Kevin Mirabile’s “Hedge Fund Investing.” Here’s what stuck with me after going through the whole thing.
Hedge fund investing
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 12 Part 2: Service Providers - Auditors and Tech
In the first part of Chapter 12, we covered fund administrators and prime brokers. Now we get into the other critical service providers: auditors, lawyers, and technology firms. These are less flashy but just as important. A hedge fund without a good auditor is like a restaurant without a health inspector. Maybe everything is fine. Maybe you don’t want to know.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 12 Part 1: Service Providers - Admin and Brokers
When you think about hedge funds, you think about traders and portfolio managers. Maybe a genius founder in a corner office making billion-dollar bets. But behind every hedge fund is a small army of service providers doing work that nobody talks about. Chapter 12 is about those people.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 11 Part 2: Due Diligence - Risk and Fraud
Part 1 covered how to prepare for due diligence and evaluate a fund’s investment process. Now comes the hard stuff. Risk management, operations, the business model, and the part nobody wants to think about: fraud.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 11 Part 1: Due Diligence Preparation
Due diligence. Sounds boring. But this is the chapter where you learn how to not lose your money to the next Madoff. So maybe pay attention.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 10: Fund Terms and Incentives
Why do hedge fund managers charge so much? And does paying more actually get you better results? Chapter 10 of Mirabile’s book tackles this. Turns out, the way you structure a fund’s fees and terms has a real effect on how the manager behaves. And how the manager behaves determines your returns.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 9: Measuring Performance
You would think measuring how well a hedge fund did is simple. Fund went up 10%? Great. Down 3%? Bad. Done.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 8: Multistrategy Funds and Funds of Funds
So you want diversified hedge fund exposure but don’t want to pick individual managers yourself. Chapter 8 covers your two main options: multistrategy funds and funds of hedge funds (FoF). There is also a third option, index replication, that has been gaining traction. Same goal, very different execution. Let’s break it down.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 7: Convertible Arbitrage Strategies
Convertible arbitrage sounds complicated. And honestly, the mechanics are not trivial. But the core idea is surprisingly simple. You buy a convertible bond. You short the stock of the same company. Then you try to profit from the difference.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 6: Fixed Income Relative Value and Credit Arbitrage
This chapter is about bond nerds. Specifically, hedge fund managers who make money by finding small price differences between bonds that should be priced the same (or very close). The strategies are called fixed income relative value and credit arbitrage. They sound boring. But the math behind them is wild.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 5 Part 2: Long/Short Equity Risk and Returns
In Part 1 we covered how long/short equity funds work, the five strategy types, and how they construct portfolios. Now let’s look at the business side: fees, redemptions, historical performance, and how investors evaluate these managers.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 5 Part 1: Long/Short Equity Basics
Long/short equity is the most popular hedge fund strategy. It’s also the oldest. The very first hedge fund, started by Alfred Winslow Jones in 1949, was a long/short equity fund. He turned $100,000 into $4.8 million over 20 years. People noticed. By 1968, the SEC counted 140 funds copying his approach.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 4: Global Macro Investing
Global macro is the strategy people think of when they hear “hedge fund.” Big bets on currencies. Shorting entire economies. George Soros breaking the Bank of England. That kind of thing.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 3: Industry Trends and History
Chapter 3 is basically a timeline of the hedge fund industry. How it started small, got huge, almost died in 2008, and came back. If you want to understand where hedge funds are today, you need to know how they got here.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 2 Part 2: Pensions, Sovereign Wealth, and Funds of Funds
In Part 1 we covered the research behind hedge fund investing and how rich people, family offices, and endowments got into the game. Now let’s talk about the really big money: pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, and funds of funds. Plus, if hedge funds are so great, why doesn’t everyone just put 100% of their money there?
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 2 Part 1: Who Invests in Hedge Funds?
Hedge funds started back in the 1960s when Alfred Winslow Jones launched the first one. It was weird at the time because he used leverage and short selling. Nobody else was doing that. But the industry stayed small until the late 1980s.
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 1 Part 2: Strategies, Leverage, and Performance
In Part 1 we covered what alternative investments are and how hedge funds are structured. Now we get into the fun stuff. How do hedge funds actually make money? What strategies do they use? And how does leverage turn a 10% market gain into a 23% return?
Hedge Fund Investing Chapter 1 Part 1: What Are Alternative Investments?
Chapter 1 opens with a warning. If you’re new to hedge funds, you will get overwhelmed. There’s a lot of terminology. There’s a lot of moving pieces. But Mirabile does a good job laying the foundation here. Let’s walk through it.
Hedge Fund Investing by Kevin Mirabile - A Book Retelling Series
So I picked up this book called Hedge Fund Investing: A Practical Approach to Understanding Investor Motivation, Manager Profits, and Fund Performance by Kevin R. Mirabile. And honestly, it’s one of those books that sounds intimidating but actually breaks things down pretty well.