Why Hedge Funds are Being Started Right now

Why Hedge Funds are Being Started Right now

Below is a short article from Dealbook on starting a hedge fund right now. This is a great article because it bridges some of the gap between what most professionals would expect to be happening in this space and what is actually happenning, which is the explosion of new hedge funds coming out into the industry. The article discusses how a few managers are finding opportunities in starting their funds because of the gating clauses, liquidity issues, and lack of institutional processes that some investors have suffered from. Here is an excerpt from the article:

In a small office in London’s upscale West End, three veterans of high finance are getting ready to start their own hedge fund.

It’s a scene that was common enough in the world’s financial hubs during the boom years. But in the post-Lehman, post-Madoff and post-credit-crunch world, starting a hedge fund has become harder, riskier and potentially less lucrative. So why do it? That’s what DealBook recently asked Mahmood Noorani, one of the founding partners of the new London-based fund, Gyldmark Liquid Macro Fund.

“We think it presents an opportunity to finally do things right,” he said about the timing of the new venture. “And it was the events of 2008 that convinced us that the right time is now for what we want to do.”

Mr. Noorani, along with his partners, Alastair Hollingdale and George Hatjoullis, may represent the new face of the hedge fund start-up: arrogance and mystery are out; liquidity and transparency are in.

These are not fresh-faced recent college grads hanging out a shingle, as so often seemed to be the case as hedge funds proliferated just a few years ago. Gyldmark’s three founders have worked in finance for decades and held senior roles at bulge-bracket firms llike Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Bank of America. Mr. Noorani and Mr. Hatjoullis were most recently portfolio managers at BlueCrest Capital, a large hedge-fund firm based in London. Read more...

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