Breaking it into the hedge fund industry in Toronto
Hi there,
I a 27 year old international student doing a Masters in Physics in Canada. I have had no prior exposure to the hedge fund industry, but I am now highly interested in breaking into this market.
I would like to know the amount of work needed for someone of my background to break into the hedge fund industry in Canada, so I'd know if it's worth putting in the needed works of preparatory hard work?
So you have no prior exposure to the industry, and are doing a degree in Physics, and yet somehow you've (presumably very recently) decided that you want to work for a "hedge fund"?
I learnt about the hedge fund industry from my extensive research of the finance industry. But I do not have experience of working in the hedge fund industry.
I have been wanting to make the switch for a very long time. But, it has never happened. But now, I am very firm about making the switch. Of course, I have decided to make the switch because of the lucrative nature of the industry.
I am willing to work for free at any hedge fund to gain work experience and to improve my exposure to the industry. Would you think that any hedge fund would hire me for free to work for them?
You are exactly the type of person we would never hire.
Do you even know what a hedge fund is? Do you realize that saying you want to work at a "hedge fund" is about as meaningful (read: meaningless) as saying something like "I want to work in computers." That level of vagueness would be fine for a college kid but there's no excuse for a 27-year old with a Master's degree to not be able to say with some more precision what exactly they want to do. And what they find interesting about a job other than the money.
Speaking of your Master's degree -- you've been interested in working for "hedge funds" for so long that you decided you'd get a degree in a completely unrelated field instead of trying to get a job or at least put yourself on a path to get a job? Why do I have the feeling that "it has never happened" because you never really tried?
Yes, working for a "hedge fund" can be lucrative but you'll probably never make a dollar doing it.
That's going to be a really tough go, not to be an ass, but speaking from personal experience of the region.
Getting into a hedge fund right now with your background is basically 0. Toronto is littered with CFAs and the first step for you would be to write level 1 as soon as you can. In addition, the majority of funds in Toronto are value oriented, so anything related to equity research will help you.
You have 2 options to help you break in in the future, none of which will get you there tomorrow.
1) Get CFA 1 under your belt, learn excel inside out, and hit the pavement to get a spot in Asset Management (even operations) for a few years to build up your skills and experience.
2) Since you're a physics major (and i assume you are an excel ninja who knows how to code in a few languages, try to land a spot in back/middle office trading at a big bank and eventually get onto a desk.
Know a fair bit about toronto so feel free to pm
If you have a degree in physics, you should consider a quant fund
That's exactly the career path I am considering right now. There are a good number of funds which do algorithmic trading in Toronto. Citadel, for one, comes to mind.
Also, the jobs for derivatives pricing has dropped after the recession, but it has been made up for with jobs in quantitative risk management. Usually people do a Masters in Financial Engineering to land these jobs, but I am not interested in this kind of work.
I am interested more in algorithmic trading. It's not that difficult to set up an algorithmic trading business with a 50,000 dollar capital these days. You can find trading strategies online and backtest them and you can always leverage on your capital. Experts say 12.5 times is the magic number as this gives the greatest risk-adjusted return.
It's easier to generate profits as a retail algorithmic trader than as a trader in a quant hedge fund. With scores of PhDs on the market nowadays, I guess this is a good way to stand out in the crowd.
Hedge Fund in Canada? Two words: Peter Cundill.
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