POWERPLAY CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

The founders of Powerplay Capital Management - Charles Gholl, Dave Christian and Mike Ramsey - know something about pressure.Before Gholl found his niche in finance and investment management, he was a litigator who tried cases for insurance companies.Christian and Ramsey were members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that upset the Russians and won the gold medal, and later they both played in the National Hockey League. Now the three partners are players in another high-pressure contest: ... They are the managers of a hedge fund, with headquarters in Minneapolis. In style and location, Powerplay is far from the epicenter of the hedge fund explosion. Yet in many ways it typifies the industry:High-income investors have poured billions of dollars into privately managed funds that pursue a host of investment strategies, from the daringly simple to the exceedingly complex. Unlike mutual funds, Powerplay tends to concentrate its investments in a handful of stocks. And also unlike mutual funds, Powerplay charges its clients a "performance fee":If the fund does well, the managers get a percentage of the profits.Hedge funds are exempt from U.S. rules barring incentive fees because of the net worth, and hence the sophistication, of their clients.More