Hedge Funds Getting Bad Rap

Hedge Funds are being blamed for the automotive difficulties. This is ridiculous , as they are merely investors, just like any common shareholder would be. Sure, they might be "short" the stock, or hold more complex instruments than the average investor, but they should not be vilified for trying to make a profit from their stake.

After all, many "ordinary" investors have access to hedge funds, and may not know it. This could be thru an endowment, pension plan, or even some mutual funds.

Hedge Funds - Market Neutral

Market Neutral - A hedge fund strategy undertaken by an investor or an investment manager which seeks to profit from both increasing and decreasing prices in a single or numerous markets. Market-neutral hedge fund strategies are often attained by taking matching long and short positions in different stocks to increase the return from making good stock selections and decreasing the return from broad market movements. Market neutral hedge fund strategists may also use other tools such as merger arbitrage, shorting sectors, and so on. There is no single accepted method of employing a market-neutral strategy. These strategies had a decent 2008 since the broad equity market experienced such dramatic losses.