The financial writer Sebastian Mallaby made the following observation about hedge funds:

Leverage also made hedge funds vulnerable to shocks: If their trades moved against them, they would burn through thin cushions of capital at lightning speed, obliging them to dump positions fastdestabilizing prices.

a. What does a hedge funds trades moving against it mean?

b. Why would a funds trades moving against it cause it to burn through its capital?

c. What is the connection between a funds being highly leveraged and its having a thin cushion of capital?

d. What does a funds dumping its positions mean?

e. Why might a funds dumping its positions cause prices to be destabilized? Prices of what?