"I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen."

Smart Money Investing (SMI) is an asset management company established in April 2001. The company was founded to provide superior returns, versus traditional benchmarks, on invested capital for shareholders. To start operations, the Company raised $400,000 along with an additional $100,000 of personal capital. Over the past 3 years, SMI managed to grow this $500,000 investment into 1.2 million dollars, primarily by speculating in the equity derivatives market.

In June 2003, Smart Money Investing founded SMI Partners a "hedge fund" with 25 million dollars under management from 5 "accredited investors". An "accredited investor" is an individual with a net worth, exceeding one million dollars. The investor must have an income in excess of $200,000. SMI Partners is open to future accredited investors with a minimum of 1 million dollars in risk capital.

The term "hedge fund" is loosely defined and does not always imply a hedging technique is being used. Hedge funds today employ many different types of strategies, and the appropriate description could simply be conveyed as "any unregistered, privately-offered, managed pool of capital for wealthy, financially sophisticated investors." Hedge funds are usually structured as partnerships, with the general partner being the portfolio manager, making the investment decisions, and the limited partners as the investors. Hedge fund managers attempt to produce targeted returns or absolute performance, regardless of the underlying trends in the financial markets. They implement a wide array of trading strategies, from equity, fixed-income, CTA portfolios, or mathematical algorithms; however they each strive to capture market inefficiencies.

Hedge funds are subject to the same market rules and regulations as any trader. The strategies they utilize are not as easily accessible, especially for regulated entities, such as mutual funds. To achieve this "absolute return", hedge fund managers have the flexibility to incorporate different strategies and techniques that may include:

• Short-selling: Sale of a security that you do not own, with the anticipation of purchasing it in the future, at a reduced cost.
• Arbitrage: Simultaneous buying and selling of a financial instrument in different markets to profit from the difference between prices
• Hedging: Buying/selling a security to offset a potential loss on an investment.
• Leverage: Borrowing money for investment purposes.

"We don't have to be smarter than the rest; we have to be more disciplined than the rest"