Product Description
Hedge Fund Due Diligence provides a step-by-step methodology that will allow you to recognize and avoid questionable hedge funds before its too late. Based on a framework that hedge fund investigative expert Randy Shain has refined over the course of his successful career, this book offers an overview of due diligence into hedge fund management, how information on managers can be obtained, and why this information is essential to your investment endeavors…. More >>
Hedge Fund Due Diligence: Professional Tools to Investigate Hedge Fund Managers
Hedge Fund Due Diligence: Professional Tools to Investigate Hedge Fund Managers
4 Comments
Tags: Diligence, Fund, Hedge, Investigate, Managers, Professional, ToolsPosted 25 Mar 2010 in General
I have worked for Randy Shain, and have known him for years. A constant subject of our thousands of conversations has been how to do the best possible job of acquiring and processing good information.
A lot of his competitors are pleased to provide oodles of records and listings that may or may not lead to sound investments. Randy has spent his career perfecting the kinds of research that actually give you a solid and reasoned grasp of an executive’s business past — history shows that’s among the very best factors in determining their future. If you want solid information, you want to use the techniques described in this book. Rating: 5 / 5
In this day and age, due diligence is more than just a Google search. This book details the how, where and why one goes beyond this free source of data. The author explains the nuance of many sources of information for looking into the background of hedge funds and individuals. Readers will benefit from the authors hands on experience in this field.
Rating: 5 / 5
Business-related books can be generalized into certain well-defined categories such as (i)”how to” books (and management books), (ii) profiles of famous people (and the alleged wisdom they impart), or (iii) case studies on the rise and/or demise of firms. The “how to” books are often the most instructive to a practitioner, however, with few notable exceptions (such as Joel Greenblatt’s recent book “The Little Book that Beats the Market”), the “how to” books tend to be the most boring of the bunch and are too often filled with seemingly endless lists of best practices. The profile books are often incredibly entertaining but, really, how many books on Donald Trump and Warren Buffet does the world need? The case study books are the most likely to produce `can’t-put-it-down’ page-turning classics such as Michael Lewis’ “Liar’s Poker” or Brian Burrough’s and John Helyn’s “Barbarians at the Gate.” Some authors, such as Roger Lowenstein are able to produce terrific books in all three genres.
Randy Shain’s book, “Hedge Fund Due Diligence” is primarily a “how to” book primarily targeted to individuals interested in conducting background investigations of hedge funds and hedge fund managers, yet, at the same time, the book’s numerous anecdotes about failed hedge funds serve to illustrate not only the best practices in hedge fund due diligence but results in an informative, interesting, and entertaining read that reminds me of the case study classics cited above and makes the book superior to the vast majority of “how to” books.
The title, “Hedge Fund Due Diligence” is very functional and, admittedly, not particularly scintillating. When ordering the book, I feared that the writing would be quite dry and technical, thus it came as a pleasant surprise to find the writing to be quite witty as evidenced, at the outset, by the acknowledgements section at the beginning of the book, which reminded me of Dave Eggers’ brilliant author’s note introducing his first memoir “A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius.”
The book details the areas to examine and the steps to take when conducting due diligence of hedge funds and hedge fund managers. Most chapters focus on a particular type of due diligence such as the examination of public records or analysis of credit searches with practical insight into the accuracy and value of each type of due diligence action.
Would I recommend this entire book to the general populace? No, though the first few chapters and the concluding chapter are sufficiently informative and entertaining for the person with slightly more than a layperson’s knowledge of, or casual interest in, hedge funds. However, this book is an essential tool for any fund manager that invests in hedge funds or any high net worth individual considering making a major investment in hedge funds.
Rating: 5 / 5
Randy Shain’s book is an essential tool for anyone interested in the process of performing background checks on hedge fund managers. Randy has written about the processes that are necessary to conduct this type of due diligence. The book is very detailed, leaving nothing out about the procedures his team performs on the hedge fund manager. At times it is almost too detailed, explaining explicitly how some specific searches are performed. However, Randy often interjects amusing anecdotes or opinions to keep the book interesting and lively. These often involve stories of how people who fail to perform his recommended steps do not discover crucial facts about the manager that could be a determining factor in whether or not they invest with that manager.
The book’s title is a bit of a misnomer, as it covers only the background check process and does not cover the entire due diligence process that sophisticated investors need to follow. However, Randy makes it quite clear within a few paragraphs that he does not attempt to describe the whole due diligence process.
It is likely that Randy’s firm has run more hedge fund background checks than any other firm in the industry, making him an expert in regards to performing background checks on hedge fund managers. This is a must-read book for all investors in hedge funds. Rating: 4 / 5