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pacting performance. While not specifying the exact number, he said considerable effort and studies have been made to understand the advantages and disadvantages of size and growth. Maverick compares its performance each month against pro forma performance as if no trades had been executed that month. That trend has improved over time.

Ainslie attempts to find out to what degree Maverick's agility and nimbleness have been negatively impacted by size of assets under management. Maverick tracks and cares about execution of trades (i.e., does its asset size move markets?). Each day they look at the trade executions against the closing prices and the volume-weighted average prices.

Ainslie points out that the fund has consistently grown since it was set up seven years ago. There has been only one quarter with a net withdrawal and only three quarters with down performance. Those were the first quarter of 1994 when Maverick was down 6.4 percent, third quarter 1998 when it was down 4.1 percent, and the third quarter of 1999 when it was down 4.7 percent.

He discussed the potential disadvantages of being too large. At the top of that list was being forced to change investment style, which has not been an issue for Maverick. Ainslie also continuously analyzes whether agility and nimbleness have been impaired. He feels that is a long way off.

On the positive side, says Ainslie, as assets have grown more people have been hired, which has allowed them to move closer to the individual stocks. As the firm grows in size the resources and capabilities of the trading desk improve. For example, in 1993 each investment professional watched about 100 positions. Today, with 24 investment professionals, each professional has fewer than 10 positions.1

The bottom line is performance. For the year ending March 31, 2000, Maverick had one of its best years on a relative performance basis, absolute basis, and volatility basis, says Ainslie.

Less than 1 percent of the gross assets are allocated to other managers. While this is done infrequently, Ainslie finds it valuable. Maverick can find new ideas, develop relationships, and see other managers' portfolios, as well as increase their own expertise. Maverick has also seeded other managers, and in those cases owns a small percentage of those hedge funds.

None of Maverick's portfolio is allocated to global macro. Ainslie