[legion]

To add to what has been said...

I had a professor in college that ran a hedge fund. It's my understanding that you have to bring A LOT of money to the table. Hedge fund managers are extremely secretive about their particular strategies, so don't expect straight answers on exactly what they are doing with your money.

It's also not unusual for hedge funds to go belly up and lose everything. In the pursuit of the highest returns, there is the highest risk. Sometimes they simply make bad bets. Most of them attempt to employ innovative strategies, and if their strategies become known, the market comes to expect their moves, which eliminates the ability to profit. For example, once upon a time arbitraging could yield tremendous returns, but know that the strategy is known, the prices of various commodities and stocks in different currencies tend to reflect the buying power of that currency--their isn't much room for profit anymore.

Finally, even if you have $250k that you can throw into a hedge fund, you probably shouldn't. Your investments should be diversified. You should have a solid base of low-risk investments that make up the bulk of your portfolio. Next, you should have fewer moderate-risk investments, and finally, a capstone of high-risk investments. If you're 21 and fresh out of college, you can make that high risk part maybe 25%. If you are close to retirement, it should be 0%. Making some guesses about your age Z-man, I'd put you in the 5% - 10% category. That means if you have $250 to throw in a hedge fund, you better have a total portfolio of at least $2.5 million.