A well balanced investment portfolio can consist of stocks, bonds, currency, real estate and that, what is called "alternative investment instruments" in financial circles. This last mysterious category includes (apart from other exotic) 10 thousand. hedge funds, who manage almost 2.4 trillion. Doll. assets around the world. Financial publications and gossip sections have been using the term "hedge fund" for years.. But how exactly do hedge funds manage to manage such an incredible amount of capital?? The answer to this question consists of complex calculations, stuffed with Greek letters, but for that, to understand the basics, PhD not needed. If you don't go into details, hedge funds use eight basic strategies: Long/short (Long/short) (25%): investment strategy of the first hedge fund, launched in 1949 by sociologist and financial journalist Alferd Winslow Jones, based on the idea that, that "short" sales (bet against market movement) balance the portfolio and deliver higher returns with less volatility. The increased volume of investments and the number of funds themselves negatively affected the effectiveness of the strategy, но она до сих пор остается наиболее популярной. Другая проблема – корреляция. Стратегия лонг/шорт работает тогда, когда недооцененные акции растут, и переоцененные – падают в цене. In a situation, когда рынок движется равномерно (how, for example, в 2011-ом и периодически – в 2012-ом годах), эта стратегия оказывается невыгодной.