"Wizard of Lies" was ok, a C+ maybe.
I recall having a conversation back in 2009 (i think) with a fund-of-funder who was "involved". I kept asking why would anyone invest in something so opaque? Apparently, people did think it was too good to be true. However, nobody suspected a ponzi scheme. Instead, people thought was that he was (a) front-running the clients of his brokerage and/or (b) has some serious access to insider info.Back in 2001 there were 2 separate articles (MAR Hedge and Barron's) questioning Madoff's strategy.
Nothing you said changes my opinion on that their behavour showed genuine surprise and hurt after Madoff's arrest. So I think they didn't know about the fraud, but my point is that they should have. One of the son's title was something like leader of trading operations.
Does he get royalties for these shows? Somebody (he or his wife) should get something I would think,
I recall having a conversation back in 2009 (i think) with a fund-of-funder who was "involved". I kept asking why would anyone invest in something so opaque? Apparently, people did think it was too good to be true. However, nobody suspected a ponzi scheme. Instead, people thought was that he was (a) front-running the clients of his brokerage and/or (b) has some serious access to insider info.
Because fund of fund investors are people and they are swayed by reputation, association etc....
The Daily Alpha: Alternative Thinking on Strong Hedge Fund Names,
Apr 3 2017 | 1:49pm ET
Real talk on alternative investments, business, finance & politics
April 3, 2017
Quotes of the Day
"Hedge fund investors chase hedge fund names containing a special combination of words related to economics and geopolitics, or that convey power."
Don’t underestimate the power of marketing… no matter how bad the product is.
According toresearchers at the University of Buffalo, investors are smitten by hedge funds that have strong, powerful names.
And that’s even with these funds underperforming the ones with weaker names.
Add the word “Alpha,” “Prodigy” or some other strong moniker to upsell a fund, and the inflows increase by an average of more than $227,000 per year.
Names with gravitas and power include:
Now to the performance. Despite the powerful names, the researchers said they were surprised that “funds with gravitas were not that hot in terms of performance.”
- Marathon Macro Strategic Allocation
- Manchester Alpha Fund
- Lionhart Aurora Venture Segregated Class A
As CNBC explains, “hedge funds with positively associated name gravitas have annualized alphas up to 0.97 percent lower.”
HBO's Madoff movie with DeNiro tonight at 8 pm:
http://www.hbo.com/movies/the-wizard-of-lies/video/trailer.html?autoplay=true
Personally I can't believe the sons didn't know it. If they didn't they were complicit by stupidity. The whistleblower had an article years earlier published in a major magazine and these Harward educated sons couldn't figure it out by themselves (after reading it) or ask questions???