While beating the markets was long thought to be impossible hedge funds have seemingly challenged many financial theories cracked the mysteries of Wall Street and made fortunes in the process. They are also one of the fastest growing and least understood areas in the asset management industry. What exactly are hedge funds? How has the sector developed? What do hedge fund managers strive to capture and how do they do it? What are the major hedge fund strategies and their mechanics? What are their hidden risks and unique limitations? How important are hedge funds to investors regulators and the public? From both a theoretical and practical perspective this course is geared to help answer these questions. It surveys the hedge fund industry from its origins in the 1940s and explores hedge fund strategies including long/short event-driven market neutral relative value dedicated short-bias convertible arbitrage emerging markets fixed income arbitrage global macro managed futures and multi-sector investing. Students develop an understanding of how hedge fund managersóas well as hedge fund investorsóthink operate and invest. The course tracks a live multi-sector hedge fund portfolio throughout the semester and analyzes current events and price action.
