Another Goldman unit hit by decline By Henny Sender in New York Wednesday Dec 3 2008 18:45 Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) ' plans to expand its wealth management operations have been dealt a potential setback by a dramatic decline in the value of another of its funds. Goldman Sachs Liquidity Partners 2007, which received $1.8bn in initial funding during the summer of 2007 to invest in the credit markets, is down 55.3 per cent this year through the end of October, according to investors. Fund management has become a key area of opportunity for Goldman since it responded to the credit crisis by becoming a bank holding company. As part of the move, it has been seeking to reduce its dependence on high-risk proprietary trading and increase revenues from fee-earning businesses such as wealth management. However, this strategy has arguably been endangered by continuing difficulties of funds under Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Last year, for example, its flagship Global Alpha Fund lost 40 per cent of its value.
While some hedge funds actually do employ traders, many of them are run by those with law degrees from Harvard who don't actually have an edge. So they basically leverage into similar strategies as other hedge funds, and when all of them are in the same strategy, they get blown away. Even worse, the investors are trying to get there money back so the hedge funds have to sell more at a loss. If you have any money on the sideline, you may want to invest in stocks that are not affected by consumer buying power. For example, everyone who still has a house needs to pay for utilities.
Ya gotta love it. It's the old maxim of "competency in something unrelated to trading somehow means I can learn trading quickly".