Barron's on Madoff in 2001

Missed it by that much! No slap at Barron's, but now we can see how close they were to really being onto something a few years back... check out this excerpt from a 2001 piece which is busting loose online in the wake of today's Bernie Madoff scandal:

Still, some on Wall Street remain skeptical about how Madoff achieves such stunning double-digit returns using options alone. The recent MAR Hedge report, for example, cited more than a dozen hedge fund professionals, including current and former Madoff traders, who questioned why no one had been able to duplicate Madoff's returns using this strategy. Likewise, three option strategists at major investment banks told Barron's they couldn't understand how Madoff churns out such numbers. Adds a former Madoff investor: "Anybody who's a seasoned hedge- fund investor knows the split-strike conversion is not the whole story. To take it at face value is a bit naïve."

...more on it here at Kedrosky's blog.