QOTD: Confuse and Dazzle

The stereotype is that people who work at hedge funds think they’re smarter than everyone else. They’ve gone through an asinine interview gauntlet, answering ridiculous brain teaser questions about balls, scales, and the number of razors sold last year in North Dakota. Now having survived the weeding out process, they’ve got no qualms about charging you a 2% management fee and taking an outrageous 20% of any profit. The problem is that despite knowing the answer to the question about the 3-gallon jug and the 5-gallon jug, these hedge fund people can’t beat the S&P 500. So what’s their defense mechanism? They’ve invented a ridiculous parlance to make themselves sound brilliant and baffle investors with balderdash. They confuse and dazzle with talk of forbearance agreements, covenants breaches, and fulcrum securities. They’re nothing more than highly paid hucksters and con men.