How covid-19 will impact different parts of finance

This is based on my experience/perspective, but I expect covid-19 to have varying effects on the finance industry--not all bad.

1. Sell-side - mixed effects but good for the analysts who can get even close to predicting numbers as we roll through the next couple of quarters. Old models are being thrown out the window, so this is a change to shine if your new model is better than others. Boutiques will win the most here, BB research probably less so.

2. Buy-side - Active investing is coming back. With the freakout and the sudden, massive drop in equity valuations as well as the massive swings and opportunities in credit, a lot of money is going to flow to active management. Value investing is going to become in vogue again after a decade.

3. HFs - Long/short has been the most maligned market approach for over a decade. That's all changing now. Inflows to HFs are going to be net positive for the first time in years.

4. Quant funds - The exception is the quants. RenTech has already been caught with their pants down and I expect several other quant funds are seeing massive losses due to their statarb approaches suddenly not working. The big data complex math PhD statistician approach to markets is going to become very unsexy very fast (this is like LTCM's blowup all over again times a thousand).

5. Long only - Outflows from institutions who suddenly realize they need a hedge. Retail side probably stay unchanged.

6. Vanguard and indexers - Bogleheads are a cult, so they'll probably stand pat, but the growth of indexing is going to be decimated by this for a few years at the very least.

7. M&A - Corps are going to go cautious and conservative, meaning activity will drop and M&A bankers are going to become increasingly desperate. Never thought I'd live to see the day when I pitied these guys.

8. IB - probably going to see new operations and strategies which will result in a hiring spree and the possibility of the smarter IBs looking for untraditional admits (white kid from Greenwich just out of Princeton isn't going to cut it for out-of-the-box thinking, but the banks may be too stupid to realize this).

All in all I see this being a positive for Wall Street, when the dust settles.