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From Thomas Zucosky, Chief Investment Officer, Discovery Capital Management, LLC: Edward Chancellor's Aug. 24 editorial-page commentary "Hedge Funds Today: So Much Money So Little Talent" correctly points out that a great deal of attention, talent and assets have been focused on the hedge fund industry in the past several years. However, his view that the "hedge fund boom is coming to an end" because of the waning of macro forces in place since 2000, such as low interest rates and managers' ability to short stocks during the technology stock bubble bust, misses the really big picture.

After an 18-year bull market in equities, investors believed that they had a right to an outsized return from stock markets. Even major pension funds upwardly revised their return assumptions -- a move that haunts them today. However, in reality the severe correction in stocks caused a paradigm shift for investors everywhere. They now understood that hoping for the stock market to go up was not the most prudent of strategies. Instead they decided to become proactive in their investment approaches. It is this spirit that has unleashed the enormous interest in active, skill-based investment management (aka hedge funds).

I have been involved as a professional in alternative investments for 25 years. When interest rates were 16%, we found interesting yield enhancement strategies to do. When stocks roared in the 1980s, we found ways to create consistent returns that ......................

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