A Guide to Starting Your Hedge Fund

Successful hedge fund investing begins with well-informed strategy

A Guide to Starting Your Hedge Fund is a practical, definitive "how-to" guide, designed to help managers design and launch their own funds, and to help investors select and diligence new funds. The first book to examine the practical aspects of setting up and operating funds with a focus on energy commodity markets, this book scrutinises the due diligence process and comprehensively reviews the opportunities and risks of all energy commodity markets as hedge fund investments. Extensive planning and strategy advice prove invaluable to prospective fund managers and investors alike, and detailed discussion of the markets' constraints help inform procedural decisions. Readers gain insight into practical matters including legal and commercial structures, due diligence, fund raising, operations, and more, allowing them to construct a concrete investment plan before ever touching a penny.

Asset managers are looking to energy commodities to provide attractive uncorrelated - if volatile - returns. These high returns, however, are accompanied by high risk. Few investors have experience evaluating these investment opportunities, and few prospective fund managers understand the market fundamentals and their associated risks. This book provides the answers sorely lacking in hedge fund literature, giving investors and fund managers the background they need to make smarter decisions.
* Understand the markets' structures, opportunities, and risks
* Develop a comprehensive, well-informed investment strategy
* Conduct thorough due diligence with a detailed plan
* Examine the practical aspects of fund raising, legal and tax structure, and more

Oil has long been traded by hedge funds, but electricity, the fuels that generate electricity, and the environmental products like emissions allowances and weather derivatives have become the new "hot" investment strategies. These high returns come with higher risk, but A Guide to Starting Your Hedge Fund ensures participants have essential information at their disposal.

Acknowledgements ix
Part I Why This Book? 1
Chapter 1 Introduction 3
Why This Book? 3
The Big Picture and Energy Commodities 4
Case Study: Amaranth Advisors 5
Layout 6
The Beginning 7
Bibliography 7
Part II the Basics 9
Chapter 2 What Is a Hedge Fund? 11
I Already Know What a Hedge Fund Is 11
A Little Bit of History 12
So What Is a Hedge Fund? 13
Hedge Funds (Un)Defined 16
The Growth of the Hedge Fund Industry 18
Hedge Fund + Commodities = Commodities Corporation 19
Whither Energy and Commodity Hedge Funds? 20
Moving Forward 20
Bibliography 21
Chapter 3 What Are Energy Commodities? 23
Introduction 23
What Are Energy Commodities? 23
The Regionality of Electricity 25
Why Are Energy Commodities Attractive for Investors? 27
A Complex, Solvable Problem 30
Drivers of Complexity 31
Conditions for Solvability 36
Principal Sources of Opportunity and Risk 39
Bibliography 46
Chapter 4 Trading and Investing in Energy Commodities 47
Bottom-up and Top-down 48
Trading + Managing a Business = Successful Hedge Fund 49
The Edge? 50
Trading Energy Commodities 52
Basic Financial Knowledge for Commodities 55
Conclusion 56
Bibliography 59
Part III Starting the Journey 61
Chapter 5 The Business Plan: Implications and Applications 63
Introduction 63
Objectives and Uses of a Hedge Fund Business Plan 64
Conclusion 71
Bibliography 72
Chapter 6 Laws, Contracts, and Lawyers 73
Don't Kill Your Lawyer 73
Legal Basics for Funds 74
Master-Feeder Fund Structures 77
Side-Pocket Structures 81
The Firm 84
The Investment Advisory Agreement 86
Contents vii
Attributes and Variations of the Investment Management Enterprise 87
Structural Design Decisions 88
Case Study: Complex Tax Structuring 98
Be Nice To Your Lawyer 103
Bibliography 104
Chapter 7 Service Providers 105
Introduction 105
Long-Term Relationship: Service Providers and Marriage 106
Service Providers: Who and Where? 107
Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate 108
Service? 110
How to Choose? 112
Final Thoughts 113
Bibliography 113
Part IV Running the Business 115
Chapter 8 Fundraising 117
Strategic Investor Portfolio Design 118
Start-up Lifecycle Analysis and Investor Portfolio Development 127
Investor Acquisition - Marketing 130
Tools for Marketing and Key Marketing Documents 140
Marketing Documentation 143
Investor Maintenance - Investor Relations 152
Chapter 9 Operations and Infrastructure 155
Introduction 155
Infrastructure and Technology 158
Bibliography 160
Part V Final Thoughts 161
Chapter 10 Investing in Energy Commodity Hedge Funds 163
Asset Allocation: Portfolio Building Basics 163
Asset Allocation: Understanding Different Strategies 167
Checklist for Investing in Energy Commodity Hedge Funds 170
Bibliography 171
Chapter 11 Quo Vadis 173
Bibliography 179
Appendix A Sample Business Plan Outline 181
Appendix B Outline of a Confidential Explanatory Memorandum: Sample Offshore Feeder Ltd 183
Appendix C Sample Due Diligence Questionnaire Outline 189
Index 195