Wildcat groups such as hedge funds have played a growing role in causing or aggravating blowups in the capital markets as well as the banking system. One crackup was the crisis of 2008, which ended up crippling the financial system and the real economy. The bombshell obliterated trillions of dollars from each of the major stock markets of the world, destroyed millions of jobs in sizable countries, and nixed trillions of dollars by way of lost output in the global economy. This guidebook exposes the reality behind the illusion of profits in the hedge fund game. In plain language, the primer explains knotty issues like the following. Why does the true performance of the wildcats remain hidden from view of the investing public? How can the operators enrich themselves by delivering worse results to their customers? Why do the outfits destroy wealth? How do the punters slash the returns and hoist the risk for their clients as well as the financial community and the entire society? Why will the crash of 2008 and the global recession in its wake show up repeatedly, and cause greater devastation, unless proper safeguards are set in place? How can public officials safeguard the stability of the markets? How could the economic liability of hedge funds be turned into a social asset? How can individual investors protect their nest eggs? The main audience for the book consists of active investors and earnest policymakers. Other types of readers include concerned professionals in the financial community as well as thoughtful observers from all walks of life. Given the carnage to the real economy wreaked by shaky schemes in the financial sector, the message of this guidebook is also relevant to every consumer, worker and participant in the society at large.