One of the fastest growing investment sectors ever seen, hedge funds are considered by many to be exotic and inaccessible. This book provides an intensive learning experience, defining hedge funds, explaining hedge fund strategies while offering both qualitative and quantitative tools that investors need to access these types of funds.

Since the first hedge fund was launched in 1949 by Alfred Winslow Jones, the industry has grown impressively. In 2005 it reached the record size of 1.3 trillion dollars and 8000 hedge funds. Responsible for a big slice of the daily trading volumes of financial markets, hedge funds are among the top clients for brokers, given the level of trading fees they generate.

The hedge fund world is a very heterogeneous one: there are hedge funds that encompass only a few people and those with trading floors bigger than soccer fields. The hedge fund world seems to be the place where the ability to generate positive uncorrelated returns resides, even though performances are not publicly disclosed.

And still, this remarkable phenomenon is surrounded by an aura of mystery. Using real-life examples and case studies, this book provides an intensive learning experience, and helps readers understand the investment strategies of hedge funds showing them how they can invest to make money in an uncorrelated way with financial markets.

One of the fastest growing investment sectors ever seen, hedge funds are considered by many to be exotic and inaccessible. This book provides an intensive learning experience, defining hedge funds, explaining hedge fund strategies while offering both qualitative and quantitative tools that investors need to access these types of funds. Topics not usually covered in discussions of hedge funds are included, such as a theoretical discussion of each hedge fund strategy followed by trading examples provided by successful hedge fund managers.