“Warren Buffett talks of Ben Graham as his inspiration - and Graham is widely considered the father of value investing. What may surprise many is that in the 1920s, Graham was running something not that different from a modern-day hedge fund.

“Graham writes (Memoirs of the Dean of Wall Street, which I strongly recommend) that in mid-1929 his fund had: capital of $2.5m; $2.5m of long positions offset by an equal amount of short sales; a further $4.5m of true long positions, against which it owed $2m. So the net (long - short) positions were 180% of equity and the gross (long + shorts) were 380%. His fund charged, after a 6% hurdle: 20% on the first 20% profits; 30% on the next 30%; and 50% of all earned above 50%.”

Eoin Treacy's view Thank you for this informative email. While I admire Graham's value approach to investing, his fee structure leaves something to be desired.