Thank you for posting these resources.

On Opalesque.TV, the two poles regarding hedge funds span from Simon Lack ("T-Bills better than hedge funds?" - http://www.opalesque.tv/hedge-fund-videos/simon-lack/1) and Alexander Ineichen (" Why the investment case for hedge funds is still sound": http://www.opalesque.tv/hedge-fund-videos/alexander-ineichen/1).

“We were better when we were smaller”, says Lack in a video interview on Opalesque.tv He agrees that there are “great hedge funds out there”, that some of the most talented investors in history run hedge funds, and that plenty of investors are happy with their hedge fund investments.

However, in his analysis, Lack is not looking at individual funds, but at the total dollar amount put into hedge funds by investors. The profitable years of the late 90s involved far fewer investors than today, and after hedge fund assets started to balloon from 2000 onwards, investors would be missing out: Looking at the aggregate investor profits and fees from 1998 to 2011, Lack estimates that 84% of the total went as fees to the hedge fund managers, 14% to fund of funds and just 2% went to investors as investment returns.

Ineichen, on the other hand, says that "while hedge funds have not shot the lights out, they have largely outperformed global equities and balanced portfolios (5yr rolling) and that from a qualitative perspective, the investment case for hedge funds is still sound."

He also pointed out that average hedge funds surviving 2008 reached their high-water already in Sept. 2010, while financials might need until 2024, assuming 6% annual growth. Hedge funds would be the only sector of asset management offering active risk management...

http://www.opalesque.tv/hedge-fund-videos/alexander-ineichen/1 - enjoy!