A Brief History Of The Hedge Fund

Famed hedge fund manager Mario Gabelli wrote in 2002: "Today, if asked to define a hedge fund, I suspect most folks would characterize it as a highly speculative vehicle for unwitting fat cats and careless financial institutions to lose their shirts." This characterization stems from the hedge fund's recent history, which began with the headline-making collapse of Long Term Capital Management in 1998 and continued with the sensational meltdown of the Tiger Funds in March of 2000, followed by the reorganization of the once high-flying Quantum Fund in April of 2000. These high-profile incidents overshadow more than half a century of hedge fund history that began when Alfred Winslow Jones launched the first hedge fund in 1949.