How old is too old to join a MM?
Hello,
I'm wondering what age range you've seen for Analysts at MM. For context, 10 YOE split 2 in IB, 6 at a sector focused PE fund, and 2 as a Senior Analyst covering the same sector at a smaller LO. Upside is limited in my current seat so considering other options and am wondering if joining a MM at a senior analyst level would be closed off for me at this point. I have good sector expertise but obviously missing investing in the L/S framework. Appreciate any input.
interested in this too
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Hard to think there's an age when it's too late. I've seen several guys in their 40s move into MMs, particularly if it's hard to find people with expertise in their particular sector.
There was an article yesterday about some macro trader in his 60s joining Exoduspoint
I'd be worried about the downside if you get fired, but honestly if you're game to eventually take on risk, I'd hop on the MM train. If you perform, there is certainly a path to PM.
I would say that I heard from recruiters pretty frequently my first two years on the sell side but it got quieter after that. Been on the buy side at a LO for a cpl years now and I get fewer recruitment emails and when I do it’s a PM that knows me personally and instructed the biz dev to reach out to me. So I’m not sure if I’m in the sweet spot that the biz dev ppl cold email at this point but I could get interviews if I wanted to.
More likely explanation, unfortunately, is that MMs want to interview/hire people working on the sell-side, but are less interested in those in LO. Of course there is a path from LO->MM (there's always a way), but it will be more on you and you'll have to sell yourself more. The SS experience would play in your favor if that's something you're considering
I would say 35 in terms of age and 7-8 years in terms of HF experience. Once you get to that age/experience level a lot of the PMs that are hiring are your age or slightly younger and you get into the problem of being too experienced to be an analyst but no track record to become a PM. It can definitely still be done and looking around on LinkedIn i see some senior analysts that are 40+ with 15+ years experience. In general thats not a great position to be in but if its better than your available options then it may still work on both sides.
In general a lot of PMs want young 25 year olds who are smart, relatively cheap, will work hard, travel to conferences and model 60-70+ hours a week. They don’t want 35 year olds who have high salary expectations, family obligations and are looking to jump to a PM seat.
People can join pretty old, but I can’t think of many >35 w/o prior buyside experience. Later joiners might be career changer or cancer survivor or ex military. Aside from the likely discomfort a PM would have managing a fresh analyst much older than himself, I wouldn’t let it deter you if you have a good ‘why now’ answer
I'm curious what the average hedge fund guy does from age 40-60, if they're too old to be an analyst and are unable to last over five years as a portfolio manager.
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