Hedge Fund in a Nutshell

What is a hedge fund? According to Wikipedia: "A hedge fund is a private investment fund which may invest in a diverse range of assets and may employ a variety of investment strategies to maintain a hedged portfolio intended to protect the fund's investors from downturns in the market while maximizing returns on market upswings." Notice here, "diverse range of assets" and "variety of investment strategies" to maintain a hedged portfolio. What are those diverse assets? Namely, equities,commodities,and bonds. What about "variety of investment strategies"? Well, it involved with using options to take both long and short positions. Actually, I heard there are hundreds of strategies in hedge fund industry. The long/short strategy is the basic one and it's in accordance with the name "hedge". In order to uilitize those strategy, you need to know about "options" and how it works.

Must Read Financial Blog

Since blogging have become so popular, and i decided to check out some popular financial blogs that have made differences to peoeple's lives. After googling, i have found some lists other blogger have put up. Here is a very useful one," http://www.moolanomy.com/2223/top-10-financial-blogs-to-follow-in-101-by-category-kduffy09/" It lists different blogs by categories.
I was reading http://www.earlyretirementextreme.com/ , it's pretty facinating. After i finished reading "How to achieve financial independence in 5 years", i see 2 points in the article.
No.1: Save 80%of your income.
No.2: Invest those money in stocks or bonds that generate income.
The author was be able to do it in 5 years. He did it under extreme conditions, including a minimal diet, not buying new clothes, no cars, no parties, no dinning out, etc. The concept is pretty simple, but the activity requires strict discipline and minimal spending. I mean literally no spending at all, which was pretty much fit the "Extreme" category.