London Based HF's, Prop Shops, and Buy Side Firms
Hi All,
Just wondering if anyone has any insight into the London buy side players. I'm doing my MBA right now in UK and trying to find some good buy side shops to apply to, since they're not really typical recruiters.
Thanks!
If you're looking at global macro HFs, don't overlook Brevan Howard. But I'm not sure if they take new grads (someone please correct me if this has changed). Also, I've heard they're looking to move their offices to Geneva, given the regulatory changes in the UK.
BH is pretty much one of the biggest and best global macro funds.
BH sucks, they will go bankrupt in 1-2 years.
look for getco, jane street capital or drw
thanks guys. i believe BH has moved to Geneva now, at least the legal entity is there. not sure how much of the trading staff is there. also not sure if they're taking new grads out of an MBA.
migh try some of the prop shops. i know most of them have London offices.
Buyside in London? (Originally Posted: 09/27/2009)
Heard that it's not as common in London for IB analysts to leave for buyside (PE/HF) after 2 years as it is in NYC. If one wants to eventually work in the buyside, does it make sense to start in NYC?
How does one get to work for buyside in London? What kind of people do they hire? Is it possible to interview for these positions while working in NYC?
How hard is it to get a buyside offer fresh out of a master's program (either LSE/Oxbridge) in London w/ only summer IB exp?
I think it probably depends on how LARGE that fund is. If the fund is small-moderate, then I would think they will want people who just know how to trade, and trade really well. School is of course important, but I don't think they would really care if you were a history major or math major from Oxbridge yet you couldn't even tell them what the greeks stand for in option pricing models.
A large fund will be more forgiving because they will need researchers and may even have an actual trading desk on the floor of an exchange as well as coffee boys and girls.
Now I do not know much about London trading, but I have a sort of friend who graduated from Princeton and landed a job as an analyst at a hedge fund. And it was pretty large. He also just had an undergraduate degree and majored in like international affairs.
Plenty of London analysts go onto the buyside after 2 to 3 years, and to similar firms in the megafund bracket (Blackstone, KKR, more European megafunds like Apax, Permira etc).
This is not exactly true. I have seen a few people get into megafunds at 2 years of experience in London, but would hardly describe it as "plenty".
In London, there is a huge bias for 3+ years of experience, so most people leave for buyside between 3/4 years of experience. Very few funds that will even sniff at you if you only have 2 years, particularly as they'll have more than enough candidates with more experience - I know this because I have 2 years experience and am trying for PE myself right now.
But in answer to OP's question, working in NYC is not a short cut to get past the 3 years+ bias here in Europe. Plus, with many firms if they are going to go to trouble of interviewing and hiring someone from overseas that person will typically have to be a stellar candidate, and they're likely to have more than enough quality talent in their city.
I think in general, the PE associate recruiting market in London is geared toward more experienced hires (lots of first and even 2nd year associates get recruited as PE associates), especially for European funds. That being said, MF tend to follow the american model more (although recruiting is much less structured and usually done in the winter / spring for the following summer and not 18 months before like in the US) and recruit 2nd (or third) year analysts.
To the OP, unless you land a true analyst position (and be careful in that like Warburg Pincus, a lot of EU funds name their associate analyst and senior associate / VP associate), it won't be possible to more to the buy-side without at least 2 years of IBD.
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