I’m thinking of starting a hedge fund that only invests in the stocks of other hedge funds. Who’s in?
Most people think of hedge funds as secretive pools run by a bunch of cowboy traders shooting for the moon. Think again. Fortress Investment Group, a hedge fund managing $26 billion, is about to go public and raise over $600 million. This ain’t Pets.com. Hedge funds are money machines, keeping 20% or more of investment profits: Fortress made $240 million last year. So why go public? Perhaps to distribute earnings as tax-advantaged dividends, or maybe, like the rest of Wall Street, there’s nothing like stock options to attract talent. Most likely, they want to get a lot bigger fast.