(Click to enlarge only known photo of Jeffrey Gendell)

Now he tells us: "Mistakes were made."

Greenwich resident (7.27 acres in RA-2 zone, 5 bedroom, 6 bath brick colonial circa 1936 - ironically enough, that would mean it was built in the last Great Depression) Jeffrey Gendell's hedge fund, Tontine Associates, is down a wee bit this year: 65%, as of September 30, and possibly a bit more today, say what? He's certainly made tons of money for himself and his investors over the past 10 years so I'm not going to lose sleep over the possibility that he'll have to move from that colonial. But I was struck by this quote:

[Gendell's] fund is named after 17th century Italian banker Lorenzo de Tonti, who invented an annuity where several partners invest and receive annual dividends. As each investor dies off their share is credited to the remaining partners, leaving the last man alive with all the money. The name is a play on Gendell’s desire to be the “last investor standing.”

What do I know? Maybe being 65% down for the year is to be on top of the heap right now and Greenwich is indeed hosting the last money manager still paying his groundskeepers. I never could figure out hedge funds but I feel better about that ignorance now that I know that they couldn't either.