Maybe this is a good sign:

http://www.coindesk.com/hedge-fund-gabi-makes-first-bitcoin-purchase-via-digitalbtc/

If you're going to pick an entry point for a BTC hedge fund, obviously you want to start at a low price and expect upside.

I always keep coming back to Slush (a noob story).

A few months ago I bought an S1. Brand new to the mining world and didn't know much about it (arguably, still don't). Based on a little research I chose Slush's as my first pool. I wanted to try a few different pools since I was so new and didn't really know how any of them would reward me for my one little S1.

Well, after trying five different pools, Slush's always wins and I alway come back. I think now I'm here to stay.

Admittedly, my experiment is non-scientific, not long enough to get a true sample and I bailed early on some pools, but from my experience, I earn the most with Slush.

With Slush, the time to payout .01 BTC was all over the place --- from 23 hrs to 84 hrs. With the rest it was never lower than 53 hrs --- usually more like 60 hrs and up.

Here's a little chart with the average-per-day earnings as I jumped around to different pools while testing my miner. It is sorted according to earnings per day.

https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?containerId=googft-gviz-canvas&q=select+col0%2C+col1+from+1VHJ0RrzRzyTziul9dxIRnmW2BRSmyhCtpANveFVo+order+by+col1+asc+limit+10&viz=GVIZ&t=BAR&uiversion=2&gco_forceIFrame=true&gco_hasLabelsColumn=true&width=500&height=300

(BTW, my elec is included in rent so it's FREE.)