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Uncertain markets outpace stock-pickers' talents or luck

High-flying young brokers who take on money markets soon come down to earth

NINE years ago, Randy Kurtz made an extraordinary bet on himself, the stock market and his ability to pick a few winners.

He hung out a shingle for his money management firm and made the following promise to investors: If his investments underperformed the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, they would pay him nothing. But if he beat it, they would pay him a fee equal to one-third of the money they had made beyond what the index had returned.

This was not how things were typically done. Managers of mutual funds would take, say, 1 per cent of all of the assets each year whether they beat the market or not. Hedge fund managers might help themselves to 2 per cent of the entire pile of money to compensate...

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