Some large institutions, most notably endowements, with access to large staffs of elite management, no taxes, and endless investment horizons have been known to invest substantially in private equity.

 In fact as seen below the Yale Endowment has invested as follows:

Recent posts have suggested that investors be wary of investing in similar manners as their objectives have great variance from that of large institutions. Still gaining exposure could be accomplished through investing in companies such as "BX, FIG, ALD, ACAS."

Other ETFs have emerged such as PSP and PFP. However a review of their recent performance would likely give many investors pause.

 In considering looking at this category as a potential addition to a portfolio there are several questions I am considering:

 Firstly, can anyone offer an explanation as to why private equity funds are getting destroyed? Secondly, is it reasonable to expect that major funds such as Yale avoided losses from private equity and if so how would they be able to anticipate its fall? Third, what conditions are favorable to growth in private equity?