Fund of Funds - nice but how much do they cost?

If they charge a separate fee on top of underlying funds you basically pay two people to do a job that one of them should do. Or let them split the fee, which should not be out of line with the regular fund fee. Take independent advice if you are not sure what level of fee can be justified.
New Fund of Fund launched

Megatrend Funds - is this a clear strategy?

Bankinter jumps on the "Megatrend" train, launches a fund that seems to be able to invest in a mishmash of asset classes. "Fund invests above 60% in companies without any constraints in terms of market capitalisation, sectors, currencies or geographies.The remaining part of the portfolio will be invested in public and private fixed income instruments.The fund's portfolio could also have exposure to other asset classes or factors including commodities, credit risk, volatility, interest rates, inflation and currencies."
So what is the strategy? And how will the performance be measured as there is no clear benchmark against which such an asset mix can be compared.
Investment Europe

Azentus Fund loses 6.70 % in first year

But assets under management are up. Need we say more? Nothing illustrates the need for careful fund selection more - and this applies to all investment funds, traditional, hedge or private equity.

How to make money from Hedge Funds

This brief article will pour cold water over the shoulders of any investor who hands money to hedge funds charging a '2+20' percent fee without doing extensive due diligence. Maybe the numbers are not mathematically precise but the general drift of the conclusion in the article should be evident: Otherwise an investor would be better off to manage and/or sell a hedge fund or provide them with accomodation in Greenwich/Ct (or London's West End). One should not forget that 2+20 is not the only cost many investors (certainly most private investors) face as there will be additional fees for those in private banking departments or fund of fund managers helping to select the (hopefully) winning funds.

UCITS III Hedge Funds - don't be blinded by the label

Ordinary investors already have enough trouble understanding what hedge funds do, how they are structured and what risks they face when investing in them. So the well-meaning improvement in transparency that regulators and their political pay-masters have intended by releasing the new UCITS III regulations may well be lost on ordinary mortals. But the danger is that a new label can blind investors to the still substantial risks hidden in hedge fund structures as these funds are more lightly regulated than ordinary investment funds. The recommendation by market insiders that investors just have to be more careful and do more analysis of risks is missing the point as the recipients of the advice are simply not able to do this sort of analysis. Using advisers instead just means pushing the can down the road as one risk is substituted by another one: now the investor is supposed to know which adviser to select and basically to put his trust in him and hope for the best.

Fund of Hedge Funds - A critical view

A study of the performance of Swiss Funds of Hedge Funds throws light on the performance of a product that is increasingly recommended by Fund Managers and used in the construction of private client portfolios.