Robert,
Thanks for your kind words about me.

You are correct that in my attempt to respond to blog posts quickly, I have not supported statements with research and data. Suffice it to say that plenty exists, the best of which comes from the experience of longstanding investors in hedge fund vehicles.

As for refutations, I'll leave that to others with more time. For a critique of Simon Lack's book, I would suggest you look up the review by Brian Portnoy, a former academic and former allocator who took issue with many of Simon's methods.

I'll conclude these posts by saying that hedge funds are an investment vehicle constituting a wide array of strategies and asset classes that may be suitable to constitute a place in an investor's portfolio if implemented effectively. Many others may conclude that hedge funds are too expensive for the returns they deliver. Both are valid arguments, and I find it a bit extreme to blindly support or adamantly ignore all hedge funds because of a broad brush statement about fees or returns in aggregate.

Nothing in investing, or in life, is that black and white