Investing in hedge funds is different from investing in other asset classes. There is much less publicly available information about hedge funds performance than there is about mutual funds or individual stocks. Consequently, investing in this class requires more sophisticated investment knowledge, greater due diligence, and, in many cases, a better-developed ability to evaluate investment managers.

Hedge Fund Analysis provides a broad framework of how to approach this endeavor, from initial screening to analytical techniques, interviewing skills, and legal and contract negotiations. Along the way, it demonstrates a variety of mechanisms for monitoring and tracking hedge funds and the underlying hedge fund portfolios-explaining each stage of the process in minute detail and providing specific examples which fully explain the opportunities and challenges you'll face each step of the way.

• Provides a detailed look at how to source hedge funds, screen through them, and rank their strengths and weaknesses
• Lays out a thorough process for evaluating funds, from initial interviews to performance analysis to onsite meetings
• Reveals what questions to ask by strategy in order to understand the underlying risk factors associated with each
• Highlights non-investment analysis, including operational due diligence and risk management, as integral elements in the process

Written by a financial professional with over twenty years of experience conducting investment manager due diligence, this book will put you in a position to make more informed decisions when investing in hedge funds.

With more than 8,000 hedge funds in existence today, the process of identifying, analyzing, allocating, and actively monitoring a short list of funds that meet your specific needs is harder than ever before.

While effective hedge fund analysis can be conducted in various ways and employ a myriad of models and techniques, the basic elements of the process are always the same. It requires answering essential questions that involve all aspects of the hedge fund business, including personnel, underlying investment strategy and risk, competitive advantages or "edge," back office and operations, administration, legal matters, financial issues, marketing, client service, transparency, liquidity, reporting, and more.

With over two decades of experience analyzing alternative and traditional investment strategies and managers, author Frank Travers knows what it takes to excel at this difficult endeavor. And now, with Hedge Fund Analysis, he shares his extensive insights with you.

Divided into two informative parts, this comprehensive resource provides background information—including the history of hedge funds, a discussion of their pros and cons, and how the asset class fits into diversified institutional portfolios—in Part One, and then moves on to detail a template for hedge fund due diligence in Part Two. To illustrate how the process works, Travers has created a fictional hedge fund organization and takes you through each step of the due diligence process, peeling back the onion one layer at a time so that you'll ultimately discover how to distill the massive amounts of information you're bombarded with and make informed and intelligent investment decisions. Throughout the book, you'll gain valuable insights on:

• Data collection and interviewing techniques
• Performance and strategy analysis
• Operational and risk assessments
• Legal and financial analysis
• Quantitative hedge fund scoring
• And much more

Created for the serious financial professional as well as anyone else looking to evaluate and understand how hedge funds work, this no-nonsense guide will put you in a better position to excel in this competitive arena.