The scions of wealth, the money managers and the hedge fund celebrities smile in passing as if all is right with the world, though appearances, of course, can be deceptive. Fidgeting alone before one’s fireplace on a dark winter’s eve can bring on the demons — chain-rattling doubts that keep even the stout-hearted from slumber here in fabulously rich Greenwich, Connecticut.
"Walking down the street, you’re going to reflect that things are fine," observes Kevin Murray, chief operating officer of Rock Ridge Advisors, a Greenwich-based fund of hedge funds. "In private, I think people are worried."
And why wouldn’t they be? Eight of the Hedge Fund 100 — Alpha’s annual global ranking of the biggest single-manager hedge fund firms — are headquartered here, less than an hour by train from New York City: AQR Capital Management ($10 billion in assets under management at the end of 2007), ESL...