On the face of it sourcing hedge fund talent seems to be pretty easy. After all, how difficult can it be to find a decent hedge fund manager? Well the answer is: 'Pretty difficult.' And if any proof is needed why not ask the professional funds of funds who put money with Beacon Hill or Manhattan?
Many of the best-known managers are 'closed' to new investors, and identifying the real talent among the newer managers is far more difficult than it looks. Unfortunately there is plenty of scope for errors.
Worse still, the task is arguably getting more and more complicated as the number of hedge funds proliferates around the world. Today there may be more than 5,000 funds to choose from and separating the wheat from the chaff is getting more expensive and complicated.
Sadly, there are no shortcuts. Sourcing talent requires manpower, air fares, monitoring software, the...