Last week I completed a short radio show interview with Samuel Ezerzer from Radio Shalom in Toronto.

On the show we talked about the state of the hedge fund industry, why the hedge fund industry is growing, how new hedge funds can raise capital, and some details about marketing and capital raising for larger hedge fund managers.

If you want to listen to the show you can visit the radio station’s website and listen to the MP3 archive on the right hand side of this page. You can also download the MP3 file for the show by right clicking here.

I will be on the show again sometime this fall, I’ll announce the date once it is confirmed. The radio show is on air every Wednesday at 4PM and is streamed live over the internet. Feel free to call in during the next show if you have a question for me to answer on air.

Related to: Money and Business with Samuel Ezerzer

• Fund Marketing and Sales Advice
• Hedge Fund Terminology
• Geographical Guides
• Hedge Fund Startup Tools

Tags: Hedge Fund Radio Show, Hedge Funds Radio Show, Hedge Fund Managers and Radio, Hedge Fund Radio Interview, Interviews with Hedge Fund Professionals

I completed a live radio show interview yesterday for a business and finance show in Canada. While on the air I was asked about whether hedge fund managers need tons of personal contacts to raise capital for their fund and stay in business. The full audio MP3 of this radio interview will be available shortly but here is the direct answer:

No. While some hedge funds do have a capital raising edge by having hundreds of high net worth, seeding, or institutional investor friends already in place most hedge funds have only a small group of personal relationships when they first launch their hedge funds.  Regardless of the size of their personal network hedge funds must have marketing processes and potential investor cultivation processes in place to continually turn over new potential investors, introduce them to your fund, and move them through a 7+ touch relationship development pipeline towards a due diligence conference call, in-person meeting, or direct investment.

It is critical to have these capital raising processes in place, documented, and refined based on what you learn about how other hedge funds are raising capital and working with new investors.  If you are about to start a hedge fund pay attention to these capital raising processes upfront.  If you run a medium or large sized hedge fund you can diversify your investor pipeline and improve the effectiveness of your communications by creating a flow chart or documented process that your marketing and sales team will follow.

Next month we will be releasing our new hedge fund marketing training product - I will keep in touch as we finish completing the development of this new resource.

Related to: Hedge Fund Capital Raising Processes

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Tags: Hedge Fund Capital Raising Processes, Processes for hedge fund marketing, hedge fund marketing, hedge fund marketing best practices, capital raising process, capital raising processes

Prime brokerage is big business, and it is an important part of every hedge fund’s business.  When you are moving from a single prime model to multi-prime brokerage or starting a hedge fund how do you know who to trust for prime brokerage services?

There are some things that prime brokerage relationships managers will tell you to get you in the door which commonly turn out to be not entirely true.  Here are the top 3 promises often broken and how to avoid these sales tricks while selecting a prime brokerage firm for your hedge fund.

1) Promise: “We can raise you capital if you join our prime brokerage platform”

How to avoid this trap:  It is great if someone can help you raise capital, the problem is that everyone promises this.  How many of these prime brokerage professionals have worked as third party marketers? How many have worked inside of a hedge fund raising capital?  How many hold training sessions and provide hedge fund marketing training materials to their clients?  In my experience, close to 0.  The truth is that no prime brokerage firm can provide capital raising introductions and services to all of their clients unless they have client minimums of $300M+. What these means for most hedge funds is that they will have to settle for capital raising help of other sorts such as advice, training materials, seminars, etc.  Ask to attend a seminar or see a recording of their hedge fund marketing training if this is what they have promised.  Don’t settle for someone who is “going to provide these services soon” or you are paying for their learning curve. Only work with prime brokers which can point to real tangible capital raising tools you can use starting Day 1 as their client.

2) Promise: “We can help get your hedge fund business in order”

How to avoid this trap: Advice is cheap, anyone can provide it. How do you pick out those experienced professionals over those who are just trying to make a sale?  This trap is even harder to avoid because as the saying goes in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king.  My best advice here is to ask for them to lay out how you would work together upfront and check around with 3 different prime brokerage firms in this same fashion.  In my experience if you take the time to sit down in-person with 3 different firms and get to know them personally you can quickly get a feel for how honest, hard working, and diligent they are.

When I first starting moving from capital raising directly to being a capital raising advisor to a hedge fund and prime brokerage firm I met with over 10 prime brokerage firms in person and via conference call.  Out of all of those only 3 of them came off as hard working entrepreneurial professionals like myself.  The rest had already “made it” and were making good money and were not working as hard as a hedge fund startup or successful capital raising generally has to.

If you want to speak with the prime brokerage firm I ended up partnering with please submit the form below and we will get in touch shortly with tangible examples of how we deliver value instead of just promises.

Disclosure:  Please check with compliance and legal experts before taking any capital raising actions or signing any agreements of any type.

Related to: 2 Prime Brokerage Sales Tricks

• Prime Brokerage Guide
• Prime Brokerage Association

Tags: Prime Brokerage Sales Tricks, Prime Brokerage Capital Raising, Prime Brokerage Startup Help

We will be bringing on a few off-site summer hedge fund interns this summer to help the Hedge Fund Group complete some research projects as part of our CHP Designation Hedge Fund Internship Program.

We strongly prefer and favor CHP Designation candidates but if we run out of viable options there we will look outside the participant group for interns.  We are looking for professionals who:

• Are pro-active and responsible enough to manage their time and work off-site within this internship
• Have a dedicated interest to work in the hedge fund industry or within prime brokerage
• Can quickly complete research on niche topics related to hedge funds and report results back to our team
• Near perfect grammar and spelling is a strong plus as intern will be helping us create reports and conduct research
• CHP Designation Preferred

To apply please send a 4 sentence concise email to Richard Wilson explaining why you would like the internship within an email to Richard@HedgeFundGroup.org. Interns will be selected by July 27th, 2010 at the latest.

Related to:Summer Hedge Fund Internship Program

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Tags: summer hedge fund internship, hedge fund internships, internship at a hedge fund, how to get a hedge fund internship, hedge fund internship programs

This Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) Program is now open for registration to 300 new members.

We limit participation to just 300 members because of the time-intensive hedge fund job placement services, hedge fund video training platform, hedge fund career coaching, practice examination, and resume feedback that is included for each participant in our program.

Reserve your spot in the program

The Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) designation is a 100% online-based hedge fund training and certification program that can be completed in 6-12 months.

The CHP Program is the most popular and trusted certification program built exclusively by and for hedge fund professionals. As depicted below to complete our program you must first register, complete CHP Level 1 on hedge fund fundamentals, and then complete CHP Level 2 within an area of your choice.

Some Advantages of Becoming CHP Certified:

• Access to Over 70 educational videos, templates, books, and exclusive hedge fund tools through our Hedge Fund Premium training platform
• Improved pedigree & and upgraded resume verifying your specialized hedge fund knowledge
• Access to our job placements services which include career coaching, recruiter connections, resume feedback, a hedge fund career workbook, internships, and a hedge fund resume template.
• An understanding of hedge fund investment strategies, fund of hedge funds, analytics, due diligence, and current hedge fund trends and terms.
• A marked advantage over those professionals and competing funds which do not have the hedge fund training, resources, and knowledge you will receive.

Note: All participants within the CHP Program receive 100% free 12 months access to HedgeFundPremium.com. This is our online hedge fund training platform which offers over 60 video resources to program participants. Every month there are more videos being added to our video vault within Hedge Fund Premium, these supplement the required readings of the the CHP Program.

• Analysts
• Due diligence professionals
• Hedge fund managers
• Professors & trainers
• Lawyers
• Accountants
• Recruiters
• Students
• Marketing/sales & investor relations professionals.

Video Quotes from Participants
Watch video quotes and read feedback from over 90 current and past participants by clicking here.

Reserve your spot in the program

Navigate the CHP Designation Website

• Register for the CHP Designation Program
• Short Introduction to the CHP Designation
• Program Quotes & Video Testimonials
• History of the CHP Program
• Benefits of completing this hedge fund certification program
• CHP Level 1 Overview
• CHP Level 2 Overview
• CHP Program FAQ
• Why employers sponsor their employees to complete the CHP Designation

Tags: why complete a hedge fund designation program, hedge fund certification program registration, register for the CHP Designation Program, CHA Designation, Hedge Fund Training Program Registration

This is a reminder blog post that the Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) Designation Program opens for registration in 24 hours on Thursday July 1st, 2010 at 2PM EST.

This program is the #1 most popular and widely recognized certification program created exclusively for hedge fund professionals. This program may be completed 100% online within 6-12 months and includes over 70 educational videos, a hedge fund marketing guide, career workbook, career coaching, educational webinars.

Within this session we will be accepting 300 new members into the program and registration will close immediately after these 300 slots have been filled.

We recently gave our CHP website an upgrade with new graphics, test statistics, job placement services, participation figures,and a history of the CHP Program.

To check these out please visit the following links:

+ http://HedgeFundCertification.com
+ http://hedgefundcertification.com/History-Of-CHP-Designation.html
+ http://hedgefundcertification.com/Quotes.html
+ http://hedgefundcertification.com/Hedge-Fund-Jobs.html
+ http://hedgefundcertification.com/FAQ.html

Hope to see you within the program tomorrow at 2PM EST.

- Richard

Richard Wilson
Hedge Fund Group
http://HedgeFundCertification.com

p.s. See what over 100 others are saying about the program here: http://hedgefundcertification.com/Quotes.html

Related to: CHP Program Opening in 24 Hours

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Tags: CHP Designation Program Registration, Fall session of CHP Designation Program, online hedge fund certification program, hedge fund manager training, training for hedge fund managers

The Hedge Fund Group is offering a free Hedge Fund FAQ Webinar on Thursday, June 24th from 12PM - 1PM EST.

Limitation: This educational webinar is limited to 1,000 participants and during our last webinar we had 1,300 professionals register to particpiate. Since this is a free resource the webinar spots are open on a first come first serve basis.

The purpose of this webinar is to cover the top 10 most common hedge fund questions we get here at the Hedge Fund Group and then take questions from participants on the webinar on anything regarding hedge funds. This is meant to be an educational call which will cover everything from hedge fund terms, hedge fund career advice, hedge fund marketing, starting a hedge fund, trends in the industry, etc. If you have a question you have been meaning to get answered and it is related to hedge funds then you should get on this call. This is also a good opportunity to learn more about hedge funds as we will be covering some basic and more advanced questions about the industry during this session.

What: Hedge Fund FAQ Webinar - Free advice on speeding up your hedge fund career

When: Thursday June 24th from 12PM - 1PM EST

Cost: $0

Register for this webinar by typing in your first name and primary email address below. You will then be taken to the complete (free) registration form for the webinar on this Thursday:

Related to: Hedge Fund FAQ Webinar - Free

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Tags: free hedge fund webinar, hedge fund webinars, webinar on hedge funds, hedge fund faq webinar, top hedge fund questions, hedge fund question

Part of our team runs the largest hedge fund networking association in the industry and they have just finished updating a new version of our Fund of Funds Directory.  This resource was created after our team received dozens of emails from industry professionals looking for lists of fund of funds, digital fund of fund databases, and excel-based hedge fund of fund directories.

This Fund of Funds Directory is Excel-based and provides full contact details of private equity firms including the following information:

• Contact names
• Job titles
• Phone numbers
• Email addresses
• Physical addresses
• Website URLs.

If you are interested in learning more about this resource, getting a sample of our fund of funds directory or contacting the creators please see Fund of Funds Directory.com. You may also navigate this same site by following one of the links below:

• Buy Fund of Funds Directory
• Benefits of Owning the Fund of Funds Directory
• Fund of Funds Directory FAQ

This directory of hedge fund of funds contact details is updated twice a year and when you purchase a copy of it you will get free updates to it for a period of 12 months after your purchase.

Related to this blog post: Fund of Funds Directory

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Directory of Private Equity Firms

Part of our team runs the largest private equity networking association in the industry and they just finished updating Version 2.1 of our Private Equity Directory. This resource was created after our team received dozens of emails from industry professionals looking for lists of private equity firms, digital family office databases, and excel-based family office directories.

This Private Equity Directory is Excel-based and provides full contact details of private equity firms including the following information:

• Contact names
• Job titles
• Phone numbers
• Email addresses
• Physical addresses
• Website URLs.

If you are interested in learning more about this resource, getting a sample of our private equity directory or contacting the creators please see Private Equity Directory.com. You may also navigate this same site by following one of the links below:

• Buy Private Equity Directory
• Benefits of Owning the Private Equity Directory
• Private Equity Directory FAQ

This directory is updated twice a year and when you purchase a copy of it you will get free updates to it for a period of 12 months after your purchase.

Related to this blog post: Private Equity Directory

• Private Equity Directory
• Family Offices
• Angel Investor Directory
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Today I’m announcing some exciting news, a book I wrote for was released earlier today. This book is called “The Hedge Fund Book: A Training Manual for Professionals and Capital Raising Executives.”

Within this book you gain access to these three things:

• Transcripts of over 20 interviews conducted with hedge fund veterans, resulting in over $80,000 worth of advice is offered within this book
• Over 30 Video Modules integrated into the context of the book, view these videos for free online using the URLs provided within the book
• Over 100 pages of additional pages of my own hedge fund industry insights, capital raising advice, career tips, and more.

To further review or purchase the book shown above please visit Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Borders.

This book was written by sitting down with and contacting over 30 hedge fund veterans and then using the transcripts of the 20 most valuable interviews and my own research and insights to create a hedge fund training manual.  This book will soon become required reading for the Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) Designation Program, and it includes many additional resources that can be found on HedgeFundTraining.com at no additional cost.

What You Get Inside of This Book:

• Direct stories, insights, advice, and practical strategies from over 20 hedge fund veterans
• How hedge funds are adapting their internal governance, operational, and institutional investment processes to adapt to investor demands for ever increasing institutionalized hedge fund managers
• How to raise more capital without spending any more money on marketing and sales
• How to quickly speed up your hedge fund career, gain more responsibility, and grow your specialized hedge fund knowledge faster than anyone else around you
• The top 4 trends affecting the hedge fund industry today, and why those trends will continue on for some time to come

This book was written after HedgeFundBlogger.com became a top 2 website on hedge funds and because my Hedge Fund E-Book has been downloaded close to 100,000 times to date. Without your support neither of these things could have happened, so thank you for visiting my blog.

Thanks to everyone in advance who purchases this books and can leave a review for me on Amazon.com.  If you are a blogger or journalist and would like to review a copy of the book please let me know.

Thanks for grabbing your copy.

Tags: Hedge Fund Training Manual, The Hedge Fund Book by Richard Wilson, Hedge Fund Training Book, Richard Wilsons Hedge Fund Training Book, CHP Designation Books Required