Are there roles in a HF for those who are not ‘in love’ with markets?

Sorry if my ignorance offends you….

I see many comments about those who succeed in HFs. The most common seems to be ‘you have to love the markets’.

Does this apply for all HF strats?

Obviously quant roles are different to your L/S which are different to your activist. Some roles are code-based, whereas perhaps at the other end of the spectrum there’s the focus on the asset itself, long term.

Could someone with a comprehensive understanding of the main strats cross the board, explain which if any, HF roles don’t require your eye’s to be glued to various markets & graphs 24/7?

Appreciate any advice, cheers

13 Comments
 

Research Analyst in HF - Other

any role...

its just a job

"you have to love the markets" is hardo bs from students and posers. plenty of people do well without 

100%, without defining what "loving the markets" means, it's an irrelevant statement. 

Should you have index and commodities prices memorized to the second decimal place and if you can't recall them you don't "love the markets"? Should you spend your entire weekend going through sectors outside your coverage otherwise you don't "love the markets"?

Should every analyst that doesn't do both of the above be fired on the spot?

Vague statements that don't tie to idea generation, DD, or the day to day are not useful and should not be treated as some weird pre-requisite. 

 

You could also look at biz dev at the MM funds, IR, or many funds have research positions that don’t trade and just research topics. All would be in the business of a HF but not actually making investing decisions if you are worried about that.

 

Any role not oriented to trading P&L generation doesn't necessarily require passion: fundraising, legal, back-office, etc.

But anything related to investment is intensely competitive and you are unlikely to perform even in line with peers if you don't have the motivation that they do. A bit like pro sports, though there have been exceptions of people with exceptional talent that made up for the lack of energy/interest.

Note that from what I've seen on the private markets side, it's definitely possible to coast and become a multimillionaire.

 

Thanks. I do truly love PE investing and doing deals. But Iwant to do more than just structuring private deals. Activism interests me in this way, but I feel is somewhat dying.

Hence my question about anything in the HF space that you don't have to be obsessed with markets to be competitive in.

Perhaps I should take a look at distressed stuff?

I guess end goal is to be able to invest across the cap structure and look at anything as an option, as opposed to just thinking can we get 30-50%LTV/ 4xEBITDA on this, or staring at a bloomberg terminal all week.

Appreciate your thoughts.

 
Most Helpful

You have to be pretty aware of the markets in a cross cap stack role. Any HF investing or investing related role will require you to be in close touch with the markets on a daily basis. No way around it.


The role you’re describing is one where you simply focus on fundamental research on names in a vacuum while ignoring market related noise. Very few of those roles exist, and I assume they’re likely not the best of a learning and career development standpoint.


Distressed in a vacuum is a slowly dying space. If you want to work on crapcos that consecutively file for ch11s before everyone realizes they’ll obtain more value in a liquidation, go for it. But even then you have to be attuned to the markets to be aware of where stuff trades, where the next pocket of distressed might come from, etc. Good distressed / stressed opportunities that have relevance to survive will undergo some sort of out of court LME/RX. And none of those seats that focus on these opportunities will let you do research in a vacuum.

 

Right? Like I don't get OP - why do you want to work for a HF if you don't love markets lmao. 

Do you just want to say to people you work at an HF? Even now him bringing up distressed stuff, you're still  going to have to be following how the security is trading. 

 

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