Do you need someone to talk to these days, now that you've had to lay off most of your hedge fund's research staff? Are you longing for a forum for your ideas about trading, markets and investment strategies? Do you just need a place, a virtual place, to hang out?

The Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association has just the social network for you. The not-for-profit alternative investments education organization recently acquired the wildly popular alternative investments blog AllAboutAlpha.com.

The good news for AAA fans is that the website will continue to operate independently under the leadership of Christopher Holt, the managing editor, lead writer and a CAIA-certified analyst himself. Mr. Holt founded AllAboutAlpha.com in 2006; CAIA has been a sponsor of the forum since 2007.

But AAA is more than just a web podium for Mr. Holt's outspoken views on the hedge fund industry. The site has always fostered healthy and, at times, very vigorous debate. CAIA hopes to encourage even more discussion.

"AAA offers professionals a forum for exchanging ideas on the events/developments affecting the (alternative investments) marketplace. Whether one is interested in floating a new idea or hearing the opinions of others, AAA is often the medium of choice and dovetails extremely well with our educational mandate," Craig Asche, CAIA's, Amherst, Mass.-based executive director, said in an e-mail statement explaining the website's usefulness as a social forum for CAIA's 2,600 members.