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Rating: 
Summary: BEWARE!
Review: I am highly skeptical of the data behind most of this book. The figures seem consistently wrong. I doubt a single set of data could give the #s shown in both Table 4.2 & Chart 4.5. I find it funny that in Charts 7.1 & 7.2, 2 managers have tremendously different gross returns, but seemingly the exact same set of monthly returns. Funny again, in Charts 8.1 & 8.2, "Best" & "Random" managers seem to have the exact same results. Are the errors in proof-reading, concept, or facts?
Rating: 
Summary: Lacks Depth of Coverage
Review: I read this book in about an hour, it is vey simplistic in the analisis and its conclusion or based on assumptions that can never be applied to hedge funds, specialy his survivorship analysis. I have read about 10 books in hedge funds, I find this the least helpful.
Rating:
Summary: Only focuses on risk of returns and leverage
Review: Only focuses on one aspect: risk computations and leverage This book is certainly not a handbook on how to buy a hedge fund. It spends a great deal of time discussing how to disect a fund's returns mathematically. It does a good job of explaining in simple English what is wrong with using standard deviations of returns in trying to determine a fund's risk. Unfortunately, that is not all that one should consider in evaluating a fund. It does not go into detail about looking at other funds a manager may have been involved with, comparing that fund's returns to other funds in its class. It does not talk about understanding how hedge funds determine their fees, how to watch out for fraud, how to evaluate a fund's accountants and lawyers and the relative importance of these factors. It does not spend much time on discussing the risks involved due to the fact that most funds limit when one can put in or take out money or that a fund may force you to take some of your investment back. It also does not discuss tax treatment. Many funds' earnings are reportable as regular income. This may be important. The bottom line is that you can find out about risk and volatility from a stat book. It is the other behind the scenes unformation that is also critical in choosing a hedge fund.
Rating: 
Summary: a definite must for your bookshelf
Review: Terrible book. As a prop arbitrage trader for a major bank, I have to say this book is useless for those who think they are going to start an hedge fund and what strategies prop desk use to make money. The name "Handbook" is just a joke to rip off those MBA students and academics. If you like to read about hedge fund, go to the business library of university and read a pile of Risk magazine or institutional investors. That's definitely more helpful. Don't fall on the trap of those who think they are the gurus. Just have a nice sales pitch doesn't make it a legend. Watch out.
Rating: 
Summary: opening the hedge fund kimono
Review: This book is far from perfect, some of the math and concepts are fuzzy if not suspect. Still, being the first hedge fund book of this kind it is an important book to own, and read. No other book currently sums up and collects in one place the many key concepts and important information needed to understand these hard to define vehicles. Many prop traders and hedge fund managers will wish it had never been written, since it will make their future marketing pitches much harder. It is with out a doubt the first book, which focuses on skills, risks and rewards in the world of hedge funds. These are the key concepts in evaluating and making succesful investments these vehicles. It has long been a dirty secret in the hedge fund business that many funds are unsatisfactory investments on a risk-adjusted basis. This book gives readers the concepts and tools to understand and make such evaluations. In this light this book, for all its shortcomings, upsets many of the vested interests (hedge fund managers, marketers and prop traders looking to set up the next hedge fund) by allowing investors to become more educated. I have succesfully run and invested in many succesful hedge funds for over twenty years. I'm incorporating many of Mr. Lavinio's insights into both my in-house risk systems as well as the performance reports of my own hedge funds. It will be only a matter of time smart investors and regulators read this book and start demanding such information. Many concepts in this book may well become industry standards. I my opinion those that read this book will never be unprepared or find their money invested in one of the ever-growing number of funds that lost all its investor's money.
Rating:
Summary: BEWARE!
Review: This book will be useful for the money manager interested in choosing among the growing universe of hedge funds. Despite some overmethodical and occasionally dubious measurement techniques (much is made of the mysterious-sounding "d ratio", which is simply the ratio of winning months to losing months), Lavinio does provide some useful tools for evaluating the past performance and future prospects of different hedge funds. The only disappointment is that Lavinio tends to treat hedge funds as mysterious black boxes, scrutinizing their results without any real attention to their methods. The lay reader will probably find little to satisfy his/her curiosity.
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