Oh, to be a high-flying hedge fund manager with assets of at least $5bn. It isn't simply the standard 2% management fee but the fact that in these market conditions the performance fees that usually start at 20% will generate earnings of tens of millions of dollars more for each of the founding shareholders.

How can the hedgies go wrong in these markets? Only with difficulty. The long-short strategies, which are mainly long on closer examination, have been helped by surging share prices. Convertible arbitrage, which was considered dead two years ago, has come storming back.