Word: alphas
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...meets along the way, and although his own hybrid mountain-man philosophy comes off as juvenile and preachy at times, the spiritual effect of the movie is strong. Emile Hirsch, popularized by teen movies like “The Girl Next Door” and “Alpha Dog,” gives an amazing performance as the lead in this substantially more serious film. A dead-on match for McCandless, his persona on screen is moody enough to capture the societal angst of his character. With a bristly face and a slightly ironic tone, Hirsch might have...
...15min. boat ride from Venice, the festival is its own serene island of sophisticated moviegoing. In Toronto, you move from one film to another at an bustling, big-city pace. It's the difference between a leisurely banquet, catered with Italian elegance, and an urgent series of alpha-male mini-meals. I wouldn't want to do without either of them...
...Today we're seeing another improbable linkage. A number of hedge funds are failing; others are seeing returns plunge. Among these is Goldman Sachs's flagship Global Alpha Fund, which burned a quarter of its $10 billion value over the last few weeks. And just as LTCM was free of the Russian debt that precipitated its collapse, Global Alpha was not a player in subprime junk. Indeed, Global Alpha's problems have not come from mortgages at all, but from a portfolio of stocks...
...does this happen? Why is a hedge fund like Global Alpha affected by events in markets far removed from its bread-and-butter exposure? The root of the problem is high leverage. For example, when this debacle hit, one of Goldman's funds was leveraged 6 to 1, so every dollar of investor capital claimed six dollars of positions. This is the dry kindling for a market firestorm. When things go bad for a highly leveraged hedge fund, it gets a margin call and has to sell assets to reduce its exposure. Naturally, as it sells, prices drop. The falling...
...lesson this time around with Global Alpha is the same as it was with LTCM. But we seem to be slow on the uptake. These funds hired the best and the brightest, yet they became embroiled in crises largely of their own making. If it could happen to them, it will happen again. And we'll all share in the consequences. Again...