Looking for some elaboration
Hello -
I was reading an article (http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/03/0082414) that mentioned a hedge fund that owns oil refineries, factories, etc.
What sort of hedge fund would do this? It had been my understanding that they generally only invested in equities.
On a side note - could someone be recruited out of a PHD in Economics program w/ no former finance involvement into a hedge fund?
Thanks
I"m not sure about the first, but I think it might be that the hedge fund owns a controlling stake in a company that owns factories or oil refineries .
but to the second question, yes hedge funds absolutely recruit PhDs in quantitative courses. Remember that the Long Term Capital Capital Management that blew in 2000 was run by a bunch of PhDs? Renaissance Technologies, one of the most successful funds is also dominated by quants and PhDs.
Ok - economics doesn't strike me as being quantitative though - are they still recruited?
Also, the article seems to imply that hedge funds are actively engaged in the oil trade (physical movements from countries to market in the West). How true is this?
(from quote by one of the oil traders)
Hedge funds do not invest solely in equities. In fact one of the (many) definitions of hedge fund is that they can invest in alternative financial products and asset classes like commodities, currencies, illiquid securities, etc. One strategy a hedge fund might be involved with is arbitraging the physical vs. synthetic price of a commodity-for example I can sell a forward contract on a barrel of oil for $X dollars and I can have a physical barrel delivered by that date for $Y and profit from the difference, taking risks related to transport and delivery rather than the actual oil market. They could also invest in publicly or privately held oil driling/refining/shipping companies, like Powa said (though investing in private businesses is shading towards VC or PE, some hedge funds still do it)
If you think that an economics PhD isn't quantitative you are very mistaken. Someone who does a PhD on neo-Marxist theory that's as much poli sci as econ is obviously not the type of candidate they look for, but most econ PhDs these days are very stats/econometrics intensive.
In every Econ program you have at least 3 econometrics courses (optional courses available). And other courses (you would probably be interested in empirical economics, financial economics, maybe macro?) are thaught by specifying and estimating models
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