Ricky Solomon, the Amaranth founding partner and former head of convertible arbitrage who landed at Oppenheimer, lost most of his personal assets.

FORBES: Trading Up

The universe of hedge fund asset classes is very deep and includes convertible arbitrage, distressed mortgage, long-short equity and global macro, among many other complex strategies.

FORBES: Hedge Funds Back In Style, What Advisors Should Know

Some strategies may be profitable for a while, but then have bad years, as convertible-arbitrage managers found out in 2005.

ECONOMIST: Buttonwood

Health care funds, as well as convertible and merger arbitrage hedge funds, fared the worst.

FORBES: Why Hedge Funds?