A friend sends along this joke, apparently au courant on Wall Street:
Q: How do hedge fund managers work 27 hours a day?
(answer below the fold)
A: Leverage!
It's only funny because it's true . . .
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Reminds me of an old lawyer-joke:
Young up-and-coming highly aggressive lawyer suffers a heart attack and dies at a terribly early age; like he's about 40 and here he is at St Peter's office. St Peter thumbs through his huge book of lives, and thumbs through and thumbs through. Finally tells the fellow, 'We only have one lawyer with your name in here but our book indicates you're 90yrs old.' But that's impossible says the lawyer, 'I'm only 42.' 'Well,' says Peter, 'this must be right. We went by the hours you billed....'
I don't get it... (Megan's joke, not the one in the comments)
@ Jeff
Leverage is the use of borrowing to invest more than you have. So if I have $1000, I could borrow another $4000 with it, and buy some shares of google for example. Hedge funds use alot of leverage.
Good joke!