Bob Thompson

Salida Multi-strategy Hedge Fund. Good company. Have been doing this a long time. Highly respected. Fantastic track record averaging about 30% annually in the last 10 years, including 2008. “Multi-strategy” means they do many types of strategies, usually in the equity space. They’ll do Arbitrage and high yield bonds but mostly small cap equities. Highly volatile.

Influence of Hedge Funds on Price Momentum? Can have quite and influence as Hedge Funds can leverage. Leverage is great until something goes wrong (such as 2008) and everybody starts to get out the exit door at the same time.

Setting up a diversified portfolio of hedge funds? See how the fund can add value to your existing portfolio. Does it go up in a down market or does it have the ability to protect in a down market? Give a manager 3 years of under performing before getting out.

Salida Wealth Preservation Fund. Lower risk product so people could get through the whole cycle without having to have the immense ups and downs. Will have a 10% to 60% net long exposure i.e. it does Short actively in the portfolio and doesn’t necessarily Short individual stocks but will Short off the Index risks against the stocks that it owns. In 2010, volatility was extremely low and still did 17%.

Sprott Small Cap Hedge Fund has one of the best small cap pickers in Canada. Has a 20 Year track record of about 20% a year.

West Face Capital Opportunities Trust. Have been running a managed account for 12 years but in the last couple of years brought out a fund that other people can Buy. Mainly institutional before but is now going on the platform of a lot of the brokerage firms. A truly multi-strategy fund.

Dynamic Power Hedge Fund? Fantastic money manager and highly respected. Aggressive growth momentum based. Takes very concentrated positions such as having 15%-18% positions in one stock. Because of this it will be very volatile. Has some non-resource things in the portfolio.

(A Top Pick Nov 2/10. Up 5.16%.) Vertex Fund.

(A Top Pick Nov 2/10. Up 4.33%.) Northpole Multi-Strategy Fund:

(A Top Pick Nov 2/10. Down 2.52%.) CI Global Opportunities Fund. Slipped because it wasn’t positive on the markets and was a Bear.

Resolute Funds. Had a lot of natural gas in the portfolio so it under performed. Has more gold now. Tom Stanley is one of the best stock pickers in the country. Thinks he will outperform over time extremely well.

McElvaine Investment Trust. Tim McElvaine has a fantastic track record. He got caught up in the 2008 problem because small cap stocks got caught up in the problem no matter what you were in. Also resource stocks have been on fire and deep value investors don’t go into resources too much.

Front Street Special Opportunities Fund? Actually a mutual fund, which is good news because you can buy it for as little as $5,000. More of a hedge fund nature because it’s very concentrated on small cap stocks. Has the best 15-year track record of any Canadian fund. Oil/gas and mining exposure will the majority of be what’s in the portfolio. If it gets beaten up, that’s a good time to Buy.

Which type of Hedge Funds will outperform in the next couple of years? Hedge funds that are nimble, flexible and small and that can take advantage of inefficiencies in the market.

People can short the index to hedge against their long investments. Concerns now will be noise a little way out. Good fundamental companies will do well in 2011 whereas the indexes may not. Options are a way to get leverage in a portfolio. Premiums associated with options plays are getting rich. In uranium there is still a supply/demand imbalance. He would play it from a stock perspective.