Do Hedge Fund Workers Travel Much?

Hey guys. I'm wondering how often Hedge Fund workers travel? Do only managers and others who are high up travel? Or do analysts travel as well? Please let me know and feel free to share personal stories! Thanks

 

Depends on type of fund. Long/short, value equity funds can have more travel involved to meet with industry people. Quant, macro not so much. The one thing you don't do is meet clients, which is where a lot of consulting and ibanking traveling comes from.

 
Best Response

It's a very 'depends' kind of a situation.

Travel is usually for two reasons - 1) trade/investment idea related - meeting companies and conferences mostly 2) capital raising and marketing.

When you say top guys, it's usually the PM's and senior analysts but also professional in a sales and marketing role.

A London-based long/short shop with a huge brand rep in the market investing in European equities will not have PM's or senior analysts traveling across Europe even to meet companies. Companies often visit their offices and coverage is wide so information is available easily. We ended up setting up calls with companies instead or would visit them in our offices. The PM would accept call requests from clients.. But sales and marketing teams would be flying often to meet potential investors or existing clients.

If they're about to raise a new fund then even the PM's will end up traveling. If it's a big account with a $100m cheque then the PM for obvious reason will find time for such clients even if he is doing well and not looking for more funds. We also had clients visiting our offices often. We'd wear suits (some without a tie).

If' the client is not so much important PM's would avoid and let the sales guys handle. They'd pop in for a few mins to make an appearance and move on. At the end of the day it's difficult to deal with these guys and still keep making money.

Can't comment for buy-side high yield analysts (we have some awesome ones here) but some sell-side ones travel quite a lot from what I've been told by a reliable source. CreditAnalyst85 might be able to confirm.

People running systematic strategies don't travel so much for ideas but top guys will probably be meeting clients.

A fund manager who is new on the street as an individual or a PM within a good brand buy-side firm will travel to raise money. I knew a guy who'd fly at least once a quarter to the US as he was running a global fund (but mostly US names) out of London. But if you're at a place like Brevan or Millennium then even as a new guy you'd not travel as the structure there is quite different.

Structured products (credit) guys travel quite often as well from what I know. A lot of funds work PE style with travelling involved.

EM guys travel as well to meet central banks etc. I think here, if you are running big money then that helps as well as governments of some countries take you seriously. This I'm saying only from one guy I communicated with who is big in EM space at a top fund.

I think in conclusion, it varies but it's definitely not as bad as banking or PE where even some junior guys travel often, depending on team and role.

My post isn't structured well but it gives you at least some idea.

 

yeah up to you really, if you want to travel a lot there are plenty of opportunities to do so. If you rahter stay in the office no problem either, just do a lot of calls and as mentioned above often times people are happy to travel to your office instead

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My experience:

If you are based in NYC, there isn't a strong reason for anything but infrequent travel.

Many conferences are in NYC, all management teams come through NYC when doing roadshows, so a limited reason to go on the road. Companies also host analyst days which are often in NYC.

Travel outside NYC for me has been infrequent. Sometimes a company hosts an analyst day at their HQ or a facility tour / management meeting. There are also some good conferences in Boston or in Vegas.

In my experience, analysts travel more than PMs -- the PMs stay back to watch the markets/guard the fort, while analysts can accomplish the deeper due diligence on their own.

If you are based outside of NYC, I would expect travel will be much more frequent.

 

My experience at a L/S fund on the energy team:

-conferences: 5x+/yr -analyst days: 2-3x/yr (most webcasted) -bus tours: 1-2x/yr -facility tour: 2-3x/yr -management teams come to us 1-2x/month

Disclaimer for the Kids: Any forward-looking statements are solely for informational purposes and cannot be taken as investment advice. Consult your moms before deciding where to invest.
 
The Real Max:
captainkoolaid:

My experience at a L/S fund on the energy team:

-conferences: 5x+/yr
-analyst days: 2-3x/yr (most webcasted)
-bus tours: 1-2x/yr
-facility tour: 2-3x/yr
-management teams come to us 1-2x/month

So basically travel is once a month

On average once or twice a month, but with a heavy skew toward Sept-early Dec (except during earnings) and mid Jan-May. e.g. earnings are wrapping up so next week I'll be at two conferences and then traveling to a facility visit in bumfuck Louisiana after that. Summer months and holidays are less busy, though mgmt. teams do travel to meet with investors during summer sometimes.

 

This is for L/S equity. There is usually a conference season the month after earnings every quarter. Many of them are in NYC, but the rest are scattered around the country, depending on your coverage (i.e. energy in Texas, tech in SF, autos in Detroit etc). There are some cool destination conferences at places like the Breakers, The Phoenician, etc. There are also analyst days, bus tours, direct visits, factory tours, etc.

Usually the analysts travel, and occasionally the PMs. Some firms value travel more than others. If you cover international names, expect to travel a lot.

 

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