General partner

The individual or firm that organizes and manages a limited partnership, such as a hedge fund. The general partner assumes unlimited legal responsibility for the liabilities of a partnership.

Global-macro investment strategy

An approach in which a fund manager seeks to anticipate broad trends in the worldwide economy. Based on those forecasts, the manager chooses investments from a wide variety of markets -- i.e. stocks, bonds, currencies & commodities. The approach typically involves a medium-term holding period and produces high volatility. Many of the largest hedge funds follow global-macro strategies. They are sometimes called "macro" or "global directional-investment" funds.