As hedge fund titans face an intense grilling by congressional committees and thousands of hedge funds around the world close their doors, perhaps it is time to consider a new approach.

A hedge fund structure offers investors many advantages such as maximum flexibility, but the model is sure to change under all the heightened scrutiny.

After specializing in country-specific exchange-traded funds since 2002, I am convinced that there would be strong demand funds with new structures that address some of the current drawbacks of hedge funds, namely liquidity, transparency, leverage, risk management and fees.

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Tags: easy-billions, fraud, ivey, management-experience, medallion, mutual-fund, regional-banks, squeeze

NewsDay – Here’s something that might provide a bit of solace amid the plunging values in your retirement accounts: Warren Buffett is losing lots of money, too. So are Kirk Kerkorian, Carl Icahn and Sumner Redstone.

They are still plenty rich, but their losses — some on paper and others actually realized — illustrate how few have been spared in today’s punishing market when even big-name investors, corporate executives and hedge-fund titans are all watching their wealth evaporate.

The portfolio damage for some of these high-flyers has soared to billions of dollars in recent months. And they can’t just blame the market’s downdraft — some did themselves in with badly timed stock purchases or margin calls on shares bought with loans.

"It’s always hard to beat the market no matter who you are," said Robert Hansen, senior associate dean at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. "But when the ocean waters get that rough, it is hard for any boat to avoid getting swamped."

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Tags: attractive-price, custodian, death-struggle, easy-billions, mayhem, new-york-university, rewarding-option, sharkwatch, trillion, wilbur-ross