Hurricane Gustav fooled the hedge fund world by not causing the chaos predicted, laughs Mrs. M. It serves them right. Several hedge funds faced huge losses after wrongly predicting that gas and oil prices would rise when Gustav hammered the Gulf Coast.

The City high rollers, never slow to take advantage of a disaster, bet that prices would surge in the wake of the hurricane.  However, this time they were caught out.  Mother Nature didn't cooperate, and by the time the storm reached New Orleans, Gustav had been downgraded to Category 1.  Crude oil soared to $116 hours before Gustav hit.  However, it then eased to $105, leaving many hedge funds with losing bets.

It gives me the creeps to think of hedge fund managers betting on disasters and hoping for the worst.  It seems only just that many hedgies suffered big losses when Gustav didn't hit the supply and push prices up.  This could have caused a national disaster in energy supplies in America.

One hedge fund, Ospraie Management, fell 27% because of losses in energy, natural resources and mining stocks. I can't help feeling pleased because it is unethical for huge profits to be made from other people's tragedies.