1. What is a Hedge Fund?
The fund you start, whether for private equity, venture capital, or real estate, is a pool of money you receive from investors and use to invest in businesses you find. It then takes the money from the trade and splits the profit between the manager and the investor. A hedge fund is a pooled investment vehicle, usually open to a limited number of investors, that can be used for a variety of investment strategies. Hedge funds are usually established as limited partnerships or LLCs. Finally, hedge funds typically have lower fees than investment funds, making them an attractive investment option.
2. What is the structure of the fund?
Usually, this is a general partner or limited partnership structure. This is how 99% of the fund is structured. Here's a quick breakdown:
- General Partner: Company that Owns the Fund
- Limited Partnership—Fund
- General Partner (you): Fund Manager
- Limited Partner – Investor
Funds are invested by partners. Your funds can be used to invest in just about anything: Real estate, start-ups, private companies, and of course, even crypto! An investment manager (the person who creates and manages a fund) is also known as a "hedge fund manager."
3. What documents do I need?
There are two required documents. LPA and PPM each are about 100 pages thick! (LPA means Limited Partnership Agreement and PPM is Private Placement Memorandum) We call it the Bible because you can choose what you put in there. Then it becomes the commandment or law of that fund. If you go to a law firm, it typically costs $30,000 to get this done and set up. But isn't that still too much to start a fund? Fortunately, hedge fund incubators are a perfectly legal way to further reduce these costs.
This is a way to -
- Build your track record.
- Pay only about $2,000 in formation fees.
- Reduce your risk
You don't have to be too young or too inexperienced to start a fund. Many people have done it, myself included. If I can do it, I consider you can too. There are several reasons to create a hedge fund. Perhaps the most obvious reason is that hedge funds provide investors with a way of making money that is not correlated with the stock market. This is an important consideration for investors looking to reduce the overall risk of their portfolio.
The definition and description of hedge funds are further complicated by the fact that other investors follow many of the same practices. Individuals and some institutions purchase shares on margin. Commercial banks use leverage in the sense that the fractional reserve banking system is a group of leveraged financial institutions whose total assets and liabilities are many times their capital. An investment bank's proprietary trading arm takes positions, buys and sells derivatives, and modifies portfolios much like a hedge fund. For all these reasons, the distinction between hedge funds and other institutional investors is becoming more and more arbitrary.