Reputation of MMs

Hi all, a bit new to the space and wanted to see what the consensus is regarding the reputation of the big MMs. Of course the big 4 are considerably ahead of the others, but how do they compare against each other, and what about players like Schonfeld, Exodus, Verition, etc.? I know it's heavily pod-dependent but would appreciate any color on how each of these are viewed.

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Big 4 are platforms. Your rep will be more dictated by which PM you work for there as there are 100's of teams. In reality, you'll be employed by the PM, not the platform, as your primary objective is to help the PM make money at the platform. You are a cost/resource to the PM, less so to the firm. E.g. at big4 your salary is a pass-through cost to the LPs to "enable" the a PM/Pod.

All these linkedin posts of the culture at Citadel and MLP are nonsense if you're an investment professional. It matters more if you're a software engineer at these places.
P72 has made good inroads to fostering a talent development culture, but end of the day ppl come and go like any other place. Their objective is to not pay Balyasny type dollars for hiring outside stars, and P72's return on investment on internal talent development seems to be there as they're continuing to do it at scale. 

The smaller places are no charities, but they try to differentiate by having a more collaborative culture or fewer PMs covering the same stock and fighting for management access, liquidity and alpha.

Without  having any experience working outside the big 4 places I'd say that my perception outside in is:
Schonfeld - a great place to work, had difficulties last year but has rebounded
Exodus - less cultural, growing and adding junior PMs like there's not tomorrow (esp. in Dubai). Primarily a FI house. Making genuine efforts to institutionalise the business on the equity side
Verition - great culture, provides decent $ to less tenured people to run risk in an effort to attract talent

Bottom line: your rep is not dictated by where you work but by whom and their / your track record. But fwiw, Citadel/P72 traditionally known for good talent development. MLP for best earnings potential, and the rest as challengers / incremental share growers.

 

Yes Steve pulled off a great marketing turn-around in the last decade by heavily recruiting at college campuses.. but without the black edge, returns speak for themselves…

C annualized returns since inception, net of fees, are 19+%… M is ~13, B is ~12, P is ~11…

Always funny to see college kids douse themselves with the kool-aid of whatever’s hot at the moment… 

 

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