Hedge Funds: the Good, the Bad, and the UglyWritten by Jenny Delinga
Alfred Winslow Jones started hedge funds in 1949. He was a pioneer of non-traditional investment strategies. “Non-traditional” categorizes hedge funds quite accurately. Hedge funds have potential to make an investor quite a bit of money, but many do not understand nature of hedge funds. Hedge funds have undergone skepticism because they do not have to disclose their activities to third parties.Hedge funds can be quite profitable if an investor uses best techniques. One technique is risk arbitrage. Basically, buying stocks in a company that is in process of a merger and acquisition. Companies announce a specific price day of merger, so if stock is under stated value before day of merger, it is a relatively safe plan to buy and wait. This does pose some risk, because some mergers do not go through. Hedge funds are very secretive and do not have to disclose their activities to third parties. This allows hedge funds to be free from regulations that mutual funds have to adhere to. This can be considered as beneficial because fund managers will perform better because they see a direct profit from success of fund. In mutual funds, this is not so. Also, large companies can move undisclosed amounts of money and gain significantly without authorities noticing. Actual numbers are not known, but HFR (hfr.com) reported that at end of second quarter in 2003, there were 5660 hedge funds managing $665 billion dollars around world. The sheer magnitude of this number is shocking, but demonstrates massive profits that can be made from successful hedge fund strategy. Unfortunately for secretive businesses that enjoy secrecy of hedge funds, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is attempting to successfully implement requirement that hedge funds be registered with SEC. If this continues and is successfully implemented, then all of advantages to secrecy will be lost.
| | How To Be A SlumlordWritten by Steve Gillman
Be a slumlord? Okay, I got your attention, now truth. I really don't recommend that anyone endanger their renters with unsafe housing. Much of what people call slumlording though, is simply providing reasonable housing for those with low incomes. It is of benefit to renter AND landlord.Why Do People Rent Dumps? People rent not-so-nice places because they can afford to. A house that needs paint, has old rusty hinges on doors, and a dirt driveway - this is a house that cost less to buy, and therefore can be rented for less. Anything major that landlord does to improve it will result in higher rents, and possibly drive renter away. In fact, this often happens. A few years ago my own town enacted its first rental regulations. The fifteen pages of new rules included many non-safety-related requirements, like a minimum of windows, to allow natural lighting, bedroom square-footage requirements, and no peeling paint. These things are done in name of low income renters, and yet result is always same: higher rent. With that and regulations against mobiles homes, low income families are moving further away from town and jobs. I mention all this to let you know that if you offer an ugly, but safe and affordable rental, you are providing a real service.
|
