Quick Update

29Dec08

Where have I been? Things have been really, really busy. Not posting is kind of a self-sustaining loop. The less often I look at my own blog, the less inclined I am to post.

So here’s where I am: got my study materials for CAIA level 2 a few weeks ago. I’m somewhat behind schedule—didn’t manage to make up as much time over xmas as I thought I would. Still, finding level 2 a bit more enjoyable than level 1.

I’ve expanded my horizons slightly as regards school. While I’d previously dismissed UC and Kellogg because of the weather in Chicago, I met an alum who managed to put me at ease with the prospect of freezing my ass off. I’m also going to visit Yale at some point, pretty much just because I can. I was intrigued by their hedge fund class, though the fact that it is run from the perspective of a fund manager and not an investor means it’s not really my thing.  And for what it’s worth, I’m going to go ahead and check out info sessions at Columbia and NYU again.  I hope that, by this point, any info sessions will touch on applying in the coming fall.

Last but not least, there’s Madoff.  It’s still too early to distill any serious implications out of the Madoff fraud.  So far, the media’s focus appears to be on the damage and not the inevitable regulatory response.  One of the most interesting things I’ve found is the wildly divergent fees various people charged just for access to Madoff—access that came without the added benefit of oversight or diversification.  Check out this article at the WSJ to see how different middlemen charged ridiculously inconsistent fees for access to Madoff.  It’s just more evidence of how seriously broken the whole “pay for access” model is.  Doesn’t even matter that Madoff comitted fraud, the fact that one guy can charge me 3 times as much as another for the same investment is ridiculous and inefficient.  I’ve been kicking around a number of ideas about how to improve this model and, more to the point, the whole fund of fund concept.  I hope to post on that soon.

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Tags: business school, CAIA, hedge funds, madoff