Hedge funds - could do better

When detectives single out your industry as needing anonymous phone lines to uncover insider traders, you know its reputation has room for improvement.

You get the same feeling when the largest listed allocator to it promotes managed accounts, a way of investing that keeps managers’ hands off client cash. Or when Brussels moves to outlaw shorting national debt via derivatives – a common practice in the industry – even though academics argue forcefully this will hurt governments, including beleaguered European ones, trying to manage their debt effectively. Such are the trials facing hedge funds these days. US investigators Corporate Resolutions are touting the whistleblowing phones; Man Group its segregated accounts; and the European Par...