Just saw that thread, thanks for posting!Quote from late apex:
Prof. Kat's collaborator, Helder Palaro, posted a link to their working paper "Hedge Fund Returns: You Can Make Them Yourself!", back in Sep. 2005:
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=56310
You can download it there for a 15-page (up from 13 pp. a year ago) overview of how it's done and links to 4 other, more technical papers, also by them. Good stuff. Sometimes I miss my hedge fund days... but only momentarily.