Getting into a Global Macro Hedge Fund
Out of the different avenues I could try to pursue in finance, right now working at a global macro could be the most appealing to me. I have little interest in investment banking. It seems like the good hedge funds only take post mba students. Aside from investment banking, would be some good paths to take to reach the goal of working at global macro fund? And how ridiculously intelligent are the people there? I am very smart, have a 4.00 with little effort, but am in no way a genius.
Equity research is a popular one. Strategy in AM is another potential way. And I can't speak for other managers, but I am ridiculously intelligent. ;)
Wouldn't it be rates/fx/economic research moreso than equity research? And what is this strategy in AM? There was another thread not too long ago where the difficulty of going from AM to HF was discussed (due to different focus on relative vs absolute return). Can you comment further on the AM path? Thanks
Go through my bookmarked threads, I've saved a few on this. Read all of Bondarb's posts, he gives some great pointers and works for this type of fund.
How do I read your bookmarked threads, LIBOR?
The short answer is, it depends, but the longer answer unfortunately doesn't help much either.
It really all depends on the fund you work for and the philosophy of management. Some places live and die by their primary research. There is an interview with David Gerbenstaber of Argonaut Capital talking about how his biggest edge is the research his firm generates. There is an emphasis on valuation to some extent. If we are staying with discretionary managers, there are others who are looking for leveraged global macro themes, and put focus on risk management over the actual idea. You can probably figure out that these guys are more likely to have a trading background (and not agency trading) than something that helps with valuation.
Then I can cut it up into another step for you. What asset classes are you interested in? There are global macro managers who only trade equities, and equivalently there are some who only trade FX, rates, etc. Then, I can divide managers by region. Some trade G10, others trade EM, country specific managers, etc. There are a million ways to break this down, so really it depends.
I would say investment banking is a terrible path to most if not all global macro funds. Just my opinion, but unless you want to be crunching numbers all day and just getting the shitty work done for PMs and strategists, I would advise against it. I wouldn't be too considered with how smart you are or how smart you think the guy next to you is. Your paycheck isn't determined by how smart you are, it's how much money you make. They are not one and the same.
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