BILLIONS - Differences and similaritities between the show and real life.

So........

The title says it all.
All experienced users are welcome to share their thoughts.
Is the legendary Axe Cap an example of how the world's leading hedge funds engage in their day to day activities?

 
andreas7_cyp:
Is the legendary Axe Cap an example of how the world's leading hedge funds engage in their day to day activities?
The one recent episode that I've seen had people wearing polo shirts on the trading floor. Not true - you can't wear a short-sleeve shirt on S cough Axe Cap trading floor cause the place has AC blasting on high all the time...

PS. On a more serious note, there was an interesting conversation about the emotional toll of making right calls about wrong events

I have a friend who lives in the country, and it's supposed to be an hour from 42nd Street. A lie! The only thing that's an hour from 42nd Street is 43rd Street!
 

I think Axe Cap is closer to HFs in real life than Suits is to law firms.

The insider trading is glorified and is kinda BS, because our compliance is SO INTENSE that I can't even get close to inside info. But the pressure, the feeling of a younger person replacing a more experienced analyst, the search for the truth irrespective of the source is very similar to how we operate at least

 
Best Response

Completely agree. Worked with enough lawyers in my life to tell you all that that show is way too overdramatic and none of that shit is even close to being true. Work at an HF and I can tell you that there's at least an "attempt" to mimic some portions of what really goes down. Perhaps because Sorkin is involved and there's legitimate research that went behind creating the show. Maybe not the insider trading BS, but some other aspects (the emotional trauma and personal conflicts for sure)..

I used to like Suits a lot before but the goddamn over-the-top acting just got to me. Like take it easy already - everyone thinks they're such a BSD in that show. It's annoying. Lastly some parts of the story line are complete nonsense. For e.g. they can't seem to figure what "investment bankers" actually do. They show them really executing deals, buying and selling stock, whatever random shit they can lump into finance. Far from the truth. Annoying to watch if you actually know wtf happens.

 
roversam:
I think Axe Cap is closer to HFs in real life
Funny enough, according to my neighbor, the DA office in the show is very similar to the actual DA office where he works. I quote - "except we are less well spoken and much bigger assholes".
I have a friend who lives in the country, and it's supposed to be an hour from 42nd Street. A lie! The only thing that's an hour from 42nd Street is 43rd Street!
 

Not an experienced user, but there was one event that was very unrealistic. That was the short on Ice Juice made by Axe. On the first day of IPO, it is nearly impossible to short an underlying. First, there are limited amount of shares trading in the market given the lock-up period in effect. With that said, any broker-dealer (whether IB, retail brokerage, and etc.) do not have the inventory to lend the shares for Axe to short. The only possible way I can see the short being possible is those who are long the stock are willing to lend it for others to short, which is VERY unlikely.

Just my two cents.

Source: Close relationship with founders of a few reputable broker dealer firms

 
roversam:
000killa is right. We've tried and its not possible to be short Day 1

You could use options though theoretically

Well, for the purposes of bona fide hedging you can borrow the shares from the company and sell them into the IPO. For example, Mr. Z did a collar on his shares and the dealer was able to borrow his shares for the hedge. You could then, theoretically, imagine that if that dealer had the borrow and an incredible relationship with Axe he'd let him use the borrow. Even if both do happen, it's very unlikely since the dealer is letting himself get run over - he's short vol on the downside.

One could come up with other "explanations" that are even less likely, but again, theoretically possible. You know, stuff like borrow against the dealer greenshoe, pre-IPO or IPO-day forward transactions, IPO day straddles (has been done) and finally, borrowing shares from Chuck Norris.

Then again, that story is just as plausible as some genius asexual college grad getting hired with a buck guarantee and literally the next month becoming a CIO of the fund. Or that some genius trader is "never wrong". Or that every hedge fund trader uses cocaine but never smokes weed :P

I have a friend who lives in the country, and it's supposed to be an hour from 42nd Street. A lie! The only thing that's an hour from 42nd Street is 43rd Street!
 
000killa:
Close relationship with founders of a few reputable broker dealer firms
I can't think of any reputable US broker-dealers where the founders are still alive :)
I have a friend who lives in the country, and it's supposed to be an hour from 42nd Street. A lie! The only thing that's an hour from 42nd Street is 43rd Street!
 
xqtrack:
You can definitely short IPOs on Day 1-sometimes in decent size as well. Not on the opening print, but in the first couple hours.
Out of curiosity, is that a hands-on experience? It's not my game (I never get involved until the stock has options) so I could be speaking out of my ass, but intuitively finding borrow gotta be very tough.

My logic is that (a) The underwriters can't lend the shares for 30 days (I think ex-GS for some reason, but I can't recall why), so that's out. (b) The retail brokers, in general, do not lend shares until they settle, IPO or no IPO, that's T+3. (c) That leaves institutional investors which usually excludes fast and most smart investors will restrict their shares. (d) Most larger shops restrict IPO shares anyway, since it's a massive compliance risk.

I have a friend who lives in the country, and it's supposed to be an hour from 42nd Street. A lie! The only thing that's an hour from 42nd Street is 43rd Street!
 

Yes, it's hands on. I have done it on many an occasion, as have many other people I know. This is in an institutional setting.

Banks will work to secure borrow pretty quickly if they know clients want it and will pay for it. Yes the borrow rates can be higher, but as pointed out below, they are annualized rates and they often come down as more stock lending becomes available.

 

You can do it on day 1. I've even done it in my IBKR account. It's just a matter of whether you can secure borrow or not, which is typically difficult. More commonly i'll be able to short starting day 2 but the borrow will be absurd (40%+) and there will be no margining. Eventually borrow goes down to normal and I can margin

 

Yeah if you can elaborate, it would be great and 000killa would be happy too!

My understanding is as below: Lets just say theoretically on Day 1 you find a long only who really wants to own the stock long-term. And then they are willing to lend the shares to you because they like it anyway so they'd rather clip the borrow fees. This obviously depends on how big/broadly marketed the deal was. So great, you're now ready to sell into the market.

BUT, the underwriters have a mandate to keep the price stable so they'll keep buying. I've seen this on IPOs I've worked on and desks are totally willing to put real $$$ to make sure their deals don't fall apart.

But let's just say you're HUGE and start just pouring money into the short, you crush the dealers but by now your cost of borrow is like 20%+ (because you have run out of longs who are willing to let you speculate). So to make money you need the stock to go down >20% from your entry point.

At this point you're vulnerable to a short squeeze and that's no fun, especially on a newly listed name which has low float and unpredictable liquidity

 

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