Friday, June 1, 2007

Value hedge fund, and interesting concept

We do not often associate value investing with hedge funds. We tend to think of hedge funds as swashbuckling growth style investing goosed with lots of derivative play. But Sellers Capital, formed by a former Morningstar strategist, is indeed a value-oriented hedge fund. What's more, it's concentrated. No more than 15 stocks in its portfolio at a time. Returns are returns after all, so if the fund can make it work, people will notice. Before fees, the fund has generated annualized returns of 33.1 percent vs. 13.4 percent for the S&P 500. After fees, investors have still probably beat the index. Still, I doubt we'll see a lot of similar funds rise. Factoring out all the fees, it just may be that people will be tempted over the long-term to ask: Why not a mutual fund?

Our take on this news: Great question, "Why not a mutual fund?" Stay clear of the Hedge Fund industry, whenever everyone joins in the process, it is set up for a downside and failure.

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