 The Wild Wild World of Wealth |  |
Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, summed it up best, “When people frantically begin shredding sensitive documents and deleting computer files and smashing flash drives and chasing garbage trucks at 2 a.m., its not because they have been operating legitimately.
Hedge funds that build their investment style around the lightning-fast trading technology are known as “high-frequency traders.” But how do they make money trading in and out of securities in nanoseconds? Here’s a video from Marketplace that spells it out:
A few days ago I came across a terrific post by Terry Smith on his blog, Straight Talking. Using Warren Buffett’s investment returns, he illustrates why the two-and-twenty standard is egregious. Hedge funds win disproportionately when they charge 2 percent on assets and keep 20 percent of the profits.
Here’s what Smith writes:
You know all those investment books—send me $29.95 and I’ll show you how to make millions in the stock market? Forget it. You want market returns. Just tweet this 300-word post and watch portfolios soar. Yours free. Click now and watch the money pour in.
With the Dow trading over 10,700 again, the crisis of 2008 is growing long of tooth. Investors are growing short of memory. And many hedgies, who shuttered their funds due to performance, are making a comeback.
60 Minutes: “Do you have any friends?”
Marc Dreier: “Now? It doesn’t seem so.”
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