Hence a need to be more visible to attract customers

From their inception, "hedge funds" is surrounded by a halo of mystery and secrecy. This caste apart long systematically avoided the press and the light. A discretion to their benefit and that of their clients, reveals a study (1). Indeed, "hedge funds" present in the media record lower performance of 3.5 per year (1999-2008) to those of the funds which are not publicized. Strikingly, this gap is of a similar magnitude to that which exists between the little present actions in the media and those that are, that other (2) work estimated at 3. The underperformance of "media money" is particularly strong at both ends of the spectrum, in the funds that have been the most and the least successful in the recent past. Example: the fact that a "hedge fund" is entitled to the honours of the press after a very good year is rather a bad omen as a good for her upcoming performance. Other teaching, small funds have more to gain than the others to stay away from the "media buzz".

Actually performing hedge funds have not need to be present in the media, apart from forced. Investors come to them naturally and on their own initiative. Moreover, large funds and those who collect high fees receive more attention in the press than others. However this type of Fund issues generally less performance. Hence a need to be more visible to attract customers. The opacity of a fund is a way to keep its know-how, the information he has patiently gathered... These can come from several sources, in particular his former employer.

Exodus of talent

'Hedge funds' managers often maintain tenuous links with those who often gave them birth, banks. Those who had the greatest number of departures of collaborators around hedge funds are long-term (1978-2007) and up to the crisis, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank. Alone, these 5 institutions were responsible for the emergence of nearly 243 shoots or start-up in the alternative. On the 25 greatest contributors to this movement, 8 were located in New York, 4 to London (BT Group, Schroders, Barclays, HSBC), Zurich (UBS, Credit Switzerland) 2. Goldman Sachs rather well resisted this movement of flight of talent. Considered by many as a great "hedge fund", the Bank has retained many of them with very competitive remuneration systems.

Often, the contractor Manager replicates or affine in his new company trading methods whose specialty was in his room of markets. The activity of "premium broker" Bank tries to recover this client, which maintains a link with his former employer. In this regard, a study (3) reveals that the managers of "hedge funds" which the previous employer (Bank) was located in New York and London record in their new society for better performance than other managers, 1.2 to 1.7 per year after commissions. Professionals who have worked in the heart of the two main financial centres of the world and win with them their relationships book, contacts, informants, that they enhance better than the managers of the "periphery". The harsh competition in New York or London would also eliminate the too limited candidates. Establishments in these 2 cities have 40 of chances that banks located in other places to give birth to hedge funds.