January 2, 2002  A Question Of Style  To be a good hedge fund
handicapper, first make su  One of the reasons hedge funds have
received so much attention lately from individual and
institutional investors is because of their ability to produce
positive returns regardless of the direction of the market. As
the greatest bull market ever came to an end, it presented hedge
fund managers with the perfect opportunity to prove that their
absolute return strategies worked and that hedge funds were
worthwhile for even conservative, risk-averse investors to
pursue.  The hedge fund manager's ability to produce consistent,
positive returns was in large part overshadowed by the
outrageous returns that came seemingly to every investor during
the 1990s. The only hedge funds that caught the attention of the
general public were ones run by famous, and in some cases, now
infamous, managers.  This has changed. As equity markets have
deteriorated and the fate of global economies has become
uncertain, hedging strategies once lost