Red Sox Curse Lingers

Look at gold: soaring towards $700, then plunging down towards $600, and now back around $650 an ounce.

It's almost as if ... it's haunted.

Babe? Are you there?

There's no way of knowing for sure how much this is costing John Henry personally. His Boca Raton, Fla.-based company is private and does not reveal its accounts.

However, it does post some numbers on assets under management, fees schedules and investment returns.

In 2004, his assets under management soared from $2.1 billion to $3.3 billion. Eight of his 11 funds made profits, including 13.7%, after fees, for the Strategic Allocation plan. Henry charges most clients 2%, payable monthly, to manage their money. He also charges 20% of the trading profits each quarter, so long as the client is in the black overall. Using some rough estimates and the back of an envelope, this suggests his firm could easily have earned about $130 million in fees during 2004.

OK, it's only a ballpark figure -- but why not? The guy owns a ballpark.

Today, at 2%, $500 million in assets would generate just $10 million or so in management fees.

As for performance fees: good luck. So far his funds are all down for the year. But even if Henry somehow turns around and posts, say, an average 10% return for his clients this year, he won't be pocketing much. Do the math. That's only $50 million in investment profits.