New York Times doesn't understand stock market, hedge funds

It's clear that the New York Times, or at least certain writers, don't understand much at all about how the stock market works, and even less about how hedge funds operate.

Hedge fund returns, on average, are down 20 percent. But one in every 50 funds is up more than 30 percent — an astonishing performance, considering the broad stock market is down even more than that.

Short selling is a basic stock market activity that every business writer should comprehend. And the fact that hedge funds might be up in a down market shouldn't be anything shocking. Perhaps nowadays, when we are used to hearing how every hedge fund uses the same basic strategy, it's unusual to hear about a contrarian fund. Actually it's quite refreshing. I would have to think that if I ran a hedge fund it would be up for the year.

My hedge fund's returns would approximately equal the return of a money market fund, but still, up for the year.