Hedge Fund Manager’s Farewell

Although his fund lost money in 2008, it did not blow up; as he put it, the 20 percent loss was “not a disaster but not good.” Although he was forced to make redemptions to investors who bailed out, enough remained that he could have stayed in business. What really caused him to exit the hedge fund business is that he felt ground down by the relentlessness of the job.

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Finally, though, Mr. Barsky felt that staying in business would mean having to operate in an investing environment that he no longer quite understood. Making macro bets about the economy was suddenly more important than individual stock picking. And that wasn’t his strength. Besides, at 51, he felt he had another act left in him, and he wanted to find out where life might take him if he were no longer in the business of running money, particularly in the arena of public policy, which fascinates him. “So,” he concluded, “giving people their money back was the best course for everyone.”