Beware Of Hedge Fund IPOs

Expected to price today is the IPO of Fortress Investment Group--a $26 billion hedge fund.

What does that signify? Bubble, anyone?

Andy Kessler suspects so. Here is Kessler’s smart, sassy take on the Fortress IPO and on the hedge fund business today.

Kessler knows of what he speaks. During the 1990s, he and a friend started Velocity Capital, a Silicon Valley-based hedge fund that Barron’s ranked the third best performer in 1999.

Shortly after the Barron’s ranking, some Saudi royalty showed up at Kessler’s door in a black limo, wanting to invest a billion petro dollars in Velocity Capital. That told Kessler it was time to unwind his fund. He did.

What do you think? Is the hedge fund business getting too crowded? Is the dumb money pouring in, as perhaps signaled by the Fortress IPO? Is it time to short public hedge funds?

*This article is taken from www.forbes.com

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