It just goes to show you that no one is immune from making mistakes –or so say investors -- and paying for them, even a big dog like Goldman Sachs. The firm’s Global Alpha Fund tumbled 11.6% through November, which is pretty much a world apart from the +7% that its macro peers have been enjoying this year. Bloomberg News reports fault for the losses lies with the fund’s managers, Mark Carhart and Raymond Iwanowski, who the sources say guessed wrong in betting equities in Japan would climb while stocks elsewhere in Asia and the U.S. would fall and the dollar would make a comeback. It didn’t happen, and then in August alone, says Bloomberg News, the fund dropped 10% from bad investments in global bonds. In defense of the fund’s performance, GS spokesman Peter Rose told BN, "The fund was anticipated to be volatile – it has had volatile periods in the past. Since inception it has delivered positive returns for investors." Last year, for example, Global Alpha Fund returned a handsome 40%, according to Tom Taulli of DealProfiles.com. Meanwhile, a bunch folks who know a thing or two about losses are heading for Goldman Sachs: 17 traders from Amaranth Advisors, with 14 of the credit specialists based in New York and three in Singapore under the leadership of newly arrived Amaranth vet Gregg Felton. According to BN, they were hired to expand the firm’s investments in fixed income. "It speaks to the investment bank’s having decided to make along-term commitment to hedge funds," Les Satlow of Salem, Mass.-based Cabot Money Management said in a BN interview.