Comments on fellow team member Michael Bennett's blog on Hedge Funds

First off, let me say that I am really unsure how to approach this blog. I want to be somewhat informal since I happened to know Mr.Bennett on a personal level but for the sake of the class, I will keep it professional. Similar to Mr.Bennett, I am a college student with a substantial interest in money and how to acquire it, lots of it. Currently, I am suffering from a significant shortage of financial resources (aka I'm broke) so I was more inclined to pay close attention to this particular blog posting. I am not unfamiliar with hedge funds because I am, in fact, a Finance major but, nonetheless, I looked into Mr.Bennett's Wikipedia edit on this specific financial instrument. I found the performance fee section of the article very interesting but also quite alarming. The excessive fees that are paid out to fund managers seem disproportionate to the funds' returns and not an accurate representation of management's true performance in terms of creating sustainable, long term value. From the perspective of the manager, this flawed system is not of concern, but it is clear that the shareholders are getting hurt in this current arrangement. This is simply the nature of the finance industry. Consequently, this status quo is being challenged by all sorts of activists and regulators and may soon change. However, these essentially unregulated funds currently present extremely lucrative opportunities for a sly and intelligent financial mind.

On a side note: it would be great if you could put me in touch with your uncle, Mr.Bennett. I have a comprehensive knowledge of derivatives and financial markets (I read the Wall Street Journal daily) and have, on numerous occasions, been touted a mathematical prodigy (kidding, though I am pretty good with numbers). Additonally, I would be more than willing to manage a couple billion dollars for a small (25%?) performance fee. Judging from my background, I feel that's reasonable. Thanks.

In all seriousness, I thought Mr.Bennett's Wikipedia edit and blog posting were both interesting and well written. The information he included seemed accurate and was presented in a neat and coherent manner. Nice job buddy.

Here's a link to Micheal Bennett's Blog: Commonly referred to by the blogging community as, "The Greatest Blog Ever Created."