Should I quit IB for my own PA
I’m a 3rd year IBD analyst and my goal was to exit to an equities L/S or long only fund. I’ve wanted to be an investor since I did work experience at 16 years old but I’ve been rejected by everywhere. I came from a non target university and managed to secure a job at a low tier IB. I’ve been recruiting since I started IBD and have applied for over 200 roles since starting but have never been given an interview.
I’ve been managing my own personal account since I was 18 where I used to work in a bar whilst at university to afford to put into my account. I’m now 26 and over the past 8 years I’ve averaged ~25% IRR/returns each year. I started with around £5,000 when I was 18 and have grown it to ~£250k in 8 years (ofc this includes money that I regularly put in from my IB salary over the last 3 years).
I’m aware we’ve been in a massive bull market and so I’m not claiming I’m some investment wizard or the next buffet but I’m pretty happy with an 8 year IRR of 25% (pretty sure this is better than most funds out there?) and I feel I understand the market to some extent and generate good ideas and have the risk tolerance to act on them. I’m confident I could continue to come up with good investment ideas and if I continue with my historic returns of ~25% per year I could essentially start my own fund?
IBD prevents me from short term trades we’re required to have 3 month holding periods and it takes a week to get trades approved, so if I quit I’d have the freedom to trade more regularly and react faster to market news which could result in even better returns.
I hate my role in IBD everyday I walk to the office my brain wants me to run away, all I want to do is investing but everyone rejects me probably because I come from a low tier investment bank, non target university and I’m in IBD not in the common path of equity research / trading.
Any advice on how I can make it into the HF world, or should I just continue with IBD and managing my own account? I’ve tried recruiters but they all tell me that funds in London prefer people from equity research or S&T for equities L/S rather than IBD.
What is your style? Long term investor or in/ out every quarter?
I think the ultimate goal is to grow your pa to the point you can step back and live off a slice of the returns, right? If I were you I'd think about doing corporate finance at some tech company, funneling that salary into pa. You'll have more time and freedom to invest that way, and having that steady income is helpful psychologically so you don't make bad decisions in your pa. (Btw, how do you have time to do intensive research in an IB job?)
You may just have to accept that you won't be a professional investor. Honestly it's not all that it's cracked up to be. Great setup would be tech co paying you 100k to 200k gbp for not doing much, spend your working hours reading for your pa, compounding that for another 10 years then moving to a low col area and enjoy life
Maybe spend more time to get the L/S hedge fund role or lateral then move to l/s hedge fund. You won’t be able to survive if you have a down year.
also, how are you trading when you’re in IB? either your group isn’t busy (lateral/bad experience) or you’re slacking off. And don’t bank (including mine) not let you invest?
yes, absolutely do it....start immediately
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