A new partnership makes it clear: Blogging has become mainstream.

Editors of the popular web log AllAboutAlpha.com teamed up with the venerated Chartered Alternative Investment Analysts Association to offer CAIA members an opportunity to sound off. Members of the Amherst, Mass.-based accreditation body of the hedge fund industry can express their opinions about all things "alpha-centric" in a regular column called "Alternative Viewpoints." The aim of the collaboration between the rabble-rousing, reformed-hedge-fund-manager blog editors and the CAIA is "to create a broad platform of discussion and dialogue," according to the blog home page.

Ryan Teal, an analyst at the C$12 billion (US$12.06 billion) OPSEU Pension Trust, Toronto, shot the first volley in that discussion in the inaugural CAIA column. Mr. Teal said an advertisement about the movie "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" inspired him to write "Being Like Jesse James."

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