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performance
 

Mega / PE Fund Performance

exeunt's picture
IB
(Monkey, 35
 
Points)
 on 1/29/13 at 1:35am

Anybody know of a resource that that tracks performance of specific firms / funds so you can actually compare across over the same time periods? Or is this more known just by word of mouth / word on the street?

Thanks in advance.

How to breeze through your next performance review

minibar's picture
O
 
Points)
 on 1/14/13 at 9:30pm
performance-review.jpg

If like most of us you are a cog in the wheel at a BB, this is the time of year for performance reviews / objective setting. For some this can be a bit of a stressful time, especially if you feel like you haven’t done much to show for the past year and you have little to no motivation for the year ahead. If you stick to a script you can be in and out of your performance review in 15 minutes and back at your cage cube before your know it. Read on for some tips

Sell-side outperforms buy-side?

prashantkhorana's picture
CF
(Baboon, 146
 
Points)
 on 11/10/12 at 7:23pm
download.jpg

I found this working paper very interesting on the HBS working knowledge website so thought I'd share.
The paper mentions that total $ spending is not too far apart on both sides:
"In 2006, U.S. and U.K. investment firms spent $7.7 billion on buy-side research versus $7.1 billion on sell-side research. Further, as we discuss below, there are important differences between buy- and sell-side analysts that are likely to affect their behavior and performance."

Interestingly, the author uses bonus payouts to gauge the performance:

Why Achieving Alpha For Managers Is a Black Swan

GMngmt's picture
O
 
Points)
 on 10/2/12 at 10:30pm
Black Swan

Every quarter or so, the more senior monkeys and perhaps for the younger ones their parents, receive a 401k statement in the mail. Contained within these few pages are the cold hard facts, the summary performances of their retirement nest egg. As they look at the bold red numbers on the front page, some will simply ignore them while others may go into a rage over a few thousand dollar loss. Black or red, I would bet that most investors, not just in 401k’s, have at least wondered why their fee-based active fund managers typically deliver no better results than the market. What they don’t put in “the fine print” is that only less than one percent of managers actually achieve alpha and here’s why…

Why The Girl In Trading Is Better Than Everyone Else

GMngmt's picture
O
 
Points)
 on 9/29/12 at 1:00am
Female Trader

“There she is, that beautiful blonde from Wharton”, you say to your colleague as she comes in. She looks amazing and smells great despite being the only female in the trading pit. Yet she has a character of class, trades gracefully, and a strong resilience. After some time of trapping flies with your mouth, you stop gawking as your colleague leans over and says, “…not only is she like a nine, I’ve heard she’s the best trader at her firm!” You give a sudden and noticed, “What?” Its true, research shows in fact that females are better at trading than males but now a famous London HF manager prefers them and a renowned Forex trader gives her insights as to why…

Assessing Performance…again

prashantkhorana's picture
CF
(Baboon, 146
 
Points)
 on 9/9/12 at 7:00pm
performance.jpg

What are the key metrics for assessing performance for investing?
• A record spanning a large number of years
• A window that includes a good, bad, average year
• A benchmark against which success can be measured
Let’s quickly look at Penn’s endowment fund and a few lessons learned from its management. This is a little outdated, but still relevant. As Mark Twain said –‘history doesn’t repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme’.
John Neff led Penn’s endowment for roughly two decades starting late 1970’s and he was a respected investor of that era and was known for his adherence to value investing. The fund outperformed for the most part of his tenure.
But during the 1995-1997 era, the fund lagged most of its peers and during the 2000 era, the fund lagged even more because of its non-exposure to tech / venture capital.

Popping Pills to Perform...

sreedich's picture
 
Points)
 on 7/18/12 at 10:30pm
Pill Popping Job Performance

This may come as a shocker to some of you (sarcastic tone) but there may be rampant use of prescription medications in your office. Look around, how many of your office peers could be diagnosed with ADD or severe anxiety? Issues that require medication for legitimate reasons should not be judged, however, a growing trend indicates the use of medication is not based on diagnosis but on need to perform on the job. A recent article published by The Harvard Business Review highlighted this growing trend of pill popping in the office (Should Your Boss Encourage You to Take Drugs).

Three Things You Didn't Know About Becoming A Rock-Star Analyst

wallstasks's picture
 
Points)
 on 10/24/12 at 1:00pm
urock.jpg

At the beginning of my analyst program i had a fixed-notion of what it takes to become one of the top-ranked analysts in my class, pocket top-bucket bonus and move on to a prosperous future in finance. I wasn't alone in believing that building up great modeling skills, understanding corporate finance and mastering the three financial statements would get me there. I still think that those skills will impress your deal teams and provide the basis for a career in finance, however they're not the only way to excel.

In fact, during my time in investment banking, I worked on a lot of deals with the same analyst who didn't master any of the three skills mentioned above, yet moved on to receive top-bucket at year-end. While financial analysis skills impress associates, the following three skills impress senior bankers. Since senior bankers rank higher in the banking hierarchy, the previous mentioned analyst became top-ranked despite below-average financial analysis skills.

Build Up Killer Organizational Skills

How should I include portfolio perfomance into my resume?

david2012's picture
(Chimp, 3
 
Points)
 on 6/6/12 at 3:22pm

Hi WSO,

I am hoping to secure an equity trading position but I am having trouble with the wording/phrasing of how to present my portfolio performance and achievements in my resume. I am looking to include the following information:

1. Seven [and a half] years of experience managing my personal brokerage account (from high school through college) with an average annual compounded return of over 38% and cumulative return of over 1050%. I leveraged my investments with student loans at a ratio of 20:1 when I entered college.

The Tupac Effect

anaxi's picture
(Orangutan, 318
 
Points)
 on 4/22/12 at 3:00pm
2Pac

So the rapper 2Pac is alive after all! … at least in hologram form. For those of you out of the loop, this past week at the Coachella music festival, a hologram of Tupac Shakur performed 2 songs with fellow rapper Snoop Dog and the crowd loved every second of it – you can watch the performance on YouTube here.

The (public) company responsible for this is Digital Domain Media Group (NYSE: DDMG). In response to their stunt at Coachella, the stock shot up more than 30% in the days following in pure speculation that this technology could be monetized. The company lost 140 million dollars last year.

Is this the beginning of a new trend in live entertainment? Does anyone think this is a bad idea or borderline creepy/immoral? Also, how you feel if you were turned into a performing hologram after you died?

Hedge Fund Performance January 2012

Insider Monkey's picture
(Baboon, 170
 
Points)
 on 2/8/12 at 8:46am
hf hsbc.jpg

HSBC published the Hedge Weekly for the week of Jan 30 to Feb 3, revealing a list of hedge funds’ performances in January 2012. Some of the hedge funds haven’t reported any 2012 returns yet. Overall, it seems most hedge funds’ returns are on their way back to positive. Let’s take a look at them.

Will Msc negate my poor performance in a MO role

bbdreams's picture
(Chimp, 8
 
Points)
 on 7/17/11 at 4:50am

I posted this in the IB forum but am posting here just to get more insights.

I am finishing up 2 yrs in MO at a BB in Asia and have recently got a bad review. Main issue was that I have gotten increasingly bored with this MO role and have thus been seen as demotivated by my boss.

Luckily I will be going to a top-notch Msc Finance in Europe this fall and will go through recruiting for FO roles. I am a little paranoid and am worried that this negative review might come to haunt me when I'm applying to jobs.

Do you guys think I am thinking too much? Will getting a Msc negate the poor reviews I got from the MO role?

Would appreciate your inputs.
Thanks,

Top Performers of 2010

GoodBread's picture
AM
(Neanderthal, 3,602
 
Points)
 on 1/7/11 at 3:56pm

If any of your guys were wondering who performed the best in the hedge fund world this year, here's your answer: http://tinyurl.com/39hgqox

I'll go ahead and bet that very few of you guys knew who this year's top dog was a year ago.
Also, Dalio looks set to pocket north of 2 Bill this year, not bad for a crazy cult leader.

Consulting in Middle East

Career Consultant's picture
CO
(Chimp, 6
 
Points)
 on 10/29/10 at 5:45am

Hello all,
Anyone out there know the what is happening in the management consulting scene in the Middle East? How are comapnies faring? What is the current pecking order? What is the projected outlook?

Thanks

College, Coach, and Cost

LIBOR's picture
EN
(Neanderthal, 2,156
 
Points)
 on 8/31/10 at 11:13am

HBR has an interesting article in this month's issue on compensation for college coaches. We've had discussions on here about both the rising cost of college and CEO compensation, and this article hits on both (in the sense that a coach is the team's CEO). For those of you too lazy to click the link and read (shame on you), the article points out recent research that shows no/little correlation between the pay of a college's coach and the performance of the team or revenue for the school.

http://hbr.org/2010/09/ceos-with-headsets/ar/1

Personal Failure

JulianWells's picture
IB
 
Points)
 on 8/30/10 at 3:41pm
success_failure.JPG

When I leave work last Friday after an 80 hr work week, I go out. Half an hour into my night, I get a call from my MD and I step outside. He needs a draft of an global and regional industry overview, as well as a company overview by the following afternoon. I kiss my girlfriend goodbye (I don't apologize because she understands), I say bye to two friends (they don't) and I leave. I walk 4 blocks, I grab Starbucks, a can of pouches and a cab and I'm back at my empty apartment. I work until 6 and I send out my draft and fall asleep. My 9700 wakes me up at 8:30 with corrections requiring what seems to be a ridiculous amount of data mining. I roll out of bed, and shower and I'm business casual within 10 minutes. I decide I'll make coffee at the office.

How to be a rainmaker?

thomask's picture
O
(Monkey, 31
 
Points)
 on 7/16/10 at 1:23pm

So every trading desk, prop shop, and hedge fund, has that one guy who pulls in 5-6 figures in profit in a day, walks around a big swinging PnL, is a total trading baller in general.

What attribute do these rainmakers have that allow them to trade so much better than others? More diligence? Attention to detail? Better strategy?

I feel like trading is a field where all the good traders are approximately on a level playing field as far as returns. So what allows some ubermensch to show up and dominate the market?

How to find a hedge fund's performance?

Monkey_Hopeful's picture
O
(Chimp, 15
 
Points)
 on 1/16/10 at 1:55am

Hello Monkeys,

How do I find out the performance of a particular fund? I can get the total amount sold to investors by looking at the SEC Form D Notice of Exempt Offering of Securities, and I can also see the quarterly holdings from Form 13F.

Do you guys have any other suggestions as to what I can look at to do a due diligence on a particular fund?

Thanks in advance!

performance review

pandaboy's picture
ER
(Chimp, 9
 
Points)
 on 8/24/09 at 10:06pm

How is performance review given in this department ?

How do they rate you? What makes a good associate?

Thanks !

Compensation Buckets

ranknfile's picture
IB
 
Points)
 on 8/17/09 at 7:26pm

Does anyone know how compensation categories or 'buckets' are organized? People talk about being top bucket or 2nd bucket, but it's not clear (to me at least) how many buckets there even are, let alone how the class is divided amongst buckets. I had thought there were 5 buckets, with 20% of the class being placed in each bucket, but have heard to the contrary recently.

Any insight would be appreciated.