Breaking into Hedge Funds
Would appreciate insiders' insights on what to do and how to get into hedge funds in Toronto, Canada.
I believe I have got the right skills (aside from all those excel ninja stuff, modeling, forecasting, analysis - more on the side awareness of my own fallibility, connecting dots between market participants , financial markets, human psychology - realization of my own and others' cognitive, emotional biases and may be more than that is the intellectual curiosity and fun to test my hypothesis in the financial markets etc. ) to be successful analyst considering my personal investment record and style in the past 3 years (have beaten SP500 yoy, including in the midst of covid). I am 27 years old, working in one of the Top 5 banks .
Just not sure what else might be required. are there any other skills I should develop or should I know people who work there? So far, it seems my attempts do not work. Something is missing.
Breaking into hedge funds now is hard given you're competing with all the other guys who also work at top groups, have great school backgrounds, etc. First you should know what type of strategy interests you, which might be a bit hard. Then make a pitch that fits in. If you have a good idea and network with people, assuming no inbounds from HHs, then that may open some doors in the future.
How Did You Figure Out What Asset Class And Strategy You Wanted To Work In HF? What is the best way to learn more about various HF strategies? macro, distressed, credit, equity long/short, market neutral, event-driven, quant fund, etc?
Tbh I interned at a few funds when I was in school, so I had some idea of what type of work / what type of stuff I would do at my fund vs a fund with a different strategy. Read a few books, which helped too.
I am looking for some material that will help me better understand how fund managers analyse situations and create their investment theses in the different strategies. If there is anything available out there, I would really appreciate it. Any book recommendations? Why did you choose event driven?
How many HFs are there in Toronto? It's hard enough breaking in for a NYC-based position, let alone if you're focused in Toronto only.
I would say key is networking - figure out where you want to work and what group and then try to get a referral to an open position (that always helps). Once you get to the interview stage though you're gonna need that excel stuff (maybe not ninja but like... you're gonna need something), so wouldn't hurt to practice that. What is your role at your bank rn? Is there any chance you can get your work closer to valuation/buyside so you can have more to talk about in interviews?
no one cares about your "psychology" or "awareness of fallibility"/"connecting dots in the market" as a junior analyst they want someone who can dig for info/research deeply and model well
all the investing folk psychology stuff ppl talk about does not really matter until you are in a risk taking seat which is like 2-3 years away at minimum
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