Will Big Name Funds Gurantee you Success?

Came upon this article posted on Bloomberg. It's about the performance of Goldman Sach's flagship fund, Global Alpha Fund. Mind you, we are talking about a hedge fund worth some US$10 billion.

Here is the link to the newsclip: here

• Goldman Sachs Flagship Hedge Fund Falls 11.6 Percent (Update1)
  
  By Katherine Burton
  
  Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s $10 billion flagship hedge fund dropped 11.6 percent this year through the end of November, extending earlier losses as its managers misjudged the direction of global stock and currency markets, according to two investors.
  
  Goldman's Global Alpha Fund lost money partly on wrong-way bets that equities in Japan would rise, stocks in the rest of Asia and the U.S. would fall and the dollar would strengthen, the investors said. In August, the fund lost almost 10 percent on unprofitable investments in global bond markets. New York-based Goldman is the world's largest hedge fund manager, with $29.5 billion in assets.
  
  Global Alpha, managed by Mark Carhart and Raymond Iwanowski, both 40, is designed to make big, risky wagers, which can produce large returns as well as heavy losses. Other so-called macro funds that bet on global stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities are up an average of about 7 percent this year through November, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. Last year, Global Alpha returned almost 40 percent, said the investors, who declined to be identified.
  
  ``The fund was anticipated to be volatile -- it has had volatile periods in the past,'' said Peter Rose, a Goldman spokesman in New York. ``Since inception it has delivered positive returns for investors,'' he said. Rose declined to comment specifically on the fund's performance.

Would I be wrong to say that it would appear that big names, top guns, top reputations do not neccarily gurantee one success.