Pod Shop Negativity..
I feel like we all litter this site with negativity about pod shops and the grind of it. Does anyone have some good intel about comp success stories for PMs, and people who weren’t geniuses but have had successful careers doing this? Is there even alpha to be had for non quants out there? Or even someone who flamed out as a PM and then find a good exit op and is doing well? I’m just looking for any positivity to keep me going on this career path as I love trading stocks but feel like all the negativity makes hard to wanna keep going. I think more people than me would benefit from some positive outlooks on this site. Thank you all and best of luck to everyone
del
Pretend I didn’t ask that and share some other insight
del
Not directly in HF, but I have a friend who works at P72/Millennium/Citadel in one of the L/S pods. His PM is an average dude in almost every way. Got a wife and kids, been in industry for couple decades, and he isn't someone with crazy math chops. IIRC he went to a small LAC. Anyways, from what I can tell, the dude makes bank, simply because he has seen almost everything happen before, and they say history doesn't repeat itself but it does rhyme. So if you want to be really good as an average person, my friend suggested just reading a lot. Daily readings on FT/Economist/Anything else. Reading a ton gives you a really good idea of the markets.
Plus, if there was no alpha to be made, then the pods would die, yet they're doing pretty well all things considered.
The caveat to this is that to have seen a lot of things happen (especially in the pod model) you must've survived a while. Its survivorship bias. I wouldn't be surprised if it compounds later on in your career, but it doesn't solve for how or what makes that PM remarkable.
Everyone in this business reads and is intelligent.
Most people in this business flame out. Its just the nature of things. Try to join a good team, do good work and hope for the best. If you need more reinforcement than this I'd find another line of work. It can be a meatgrinder to no avail.
I’m sorry - have you not read the dozens of headlines that come out every month about the pods paying people $50-200m guarantees?
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