Hedge Fund Reading Resources

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Every HF is different and many variables such as strategy, AUM, culture, etc influence the type of work involved. I would read "Money Mavericks" by Lars Kroijer. Its a biographical about the rise and fall of Holte Capital, a value-oriented market neutral fund, from the perspective of its manager.

As far as valuations go, I recommend finding PDFs of investment presentations given by notable buy-siders by running a google search for "value investing congress", "value investor's insight". I also suggest reading articles on crowd source investment sites like Seeking Alpha or Motley Fool. Occasionally, you will find articles written by small fund managers that offer very good insight.

On the topic of personalities and attitudes required for HF personnel in comparison to banking, both require the usual competitive nature, analytical talent, above average intelligence etc. From my experience working with several value fund managers and the stories I hear from friends who've worked at banks, I'd say the main difference influencing personality and attitude requirements between the two for an entry level guy is the contrast in objectives. HFs typically, not all, focus on making money through generating good ideas, whereas banks make money through selling good reports. The sales driven nature of banks makes the environment much more intense, especially for entry level positions, as every little nuance detail (like a grammatical error) is met with great scrutiny, while HFs, for the most part, are more "laid back" if you will. At a bank, I feel entry level personnel usually don't enjoy the freedoms of allowing their mind to explore new leads and ideas, and must have submissive personalities. Surviving the intense environment usually requires extremely thick skin, explaining the high turnover rates at banks and the amount of analysts who jump ship to join a PE firm or HF after 1-2 years of banking. For HFs, what I mean by "laid back" is analysts will be working in an environment, especially true with smaller qualitative funds, where morning meetings are usually calm and managers are more likely to value the insights and ideas of everyone in the room with less prejudice towards rank. So, an open and creative personality is more acceptable and even encouraged at a HF. The attitude of a HF analyst is usually "how do I impress my superiors with good investment ideas?", instead of a banking analyst's mindset oriented around "how do I impress my superiors with a marketable report?". The former doesn't require scrutinizing over immaterial details (who gives a shit what comps are in Wyoming) and presentation, instead the focus on the buy-side is on the bigger picture.

try the Vault Guide; and do a search on here??

What exactly are you trying to figure out? Are you trying to start one? Are you just trying to understand how they work as investment vehicles? It might be easier if you explain exactly what you want to know.

wouldn't recommend vault guide to research HF's in terms of the info that you seem to want, there are plenty of good books on Amazon which are not too expensive and should be able to give you a good insight in HF's

Wikipedia will answer most of your basic questions.

texasmade10:

Where is a good place to learn about Hedge Funds? Requirements for starting one? Working for one? I cant seem to find a good place that discusses this in detail.

Absolute Returns: http://www.absolutereturn-alpha.com/

Bloomberg Markets: http://www.bloomberg.com/markets-magazine/

Albourne Village: http://village.albourne.com/ Signup is free.

Albourne is great, they have a pretty solid if UK-centric jobs board too.

One challenge is that a lot of industry news is either gossip/opening and shuttering news or very broad generalizations about categories/asset classes. A lot of really valuable insight about both individual funds and the market comes between the lines in other types of news sources. I have a Google Alert for funds I follow, including the names of founders/key people. You have to separate the wheat from the chaff but you can find some good stuff that way that's hidden as throw-away quotes in a random article.

marketfolly

My favorites include Reuters, finalternatives.com, hedgetracker.com and hedgeweek

Hedgetracker also has a Hedge Fund directory that's pretty helpful: http://www.hedgetracker.com/directory.php

http://www.absolutereturn-alpha.com/ http://hfobserver.com/ http://www.hedgetracker.com/

The Business Standard reports that DE Shaw, the world's second largest hedge fund, has decided to pick up 14.99 per cent stake in Crest Animation Studios and 26 per cent stake in its subsidiary Rich Crest Holdings Inc.

According to the article the New York-based fund, often described as "the most intriguing and mysterious force on Wall Street" will pick up 3.38 million preferential shares, representing 14.99 per cent stake in the expanded equity of Crest for not less than Rs 120 a piece. The foreign fund will pay Rs 40.63 crore for acquisition of the stake.

The Crest stock today closed at Rs 124.30 on the BSE, 2.43 per cent higher than yesterday's close of Rs 121.35, reports the article.

Value Investor's Club Sum Zero

Both are invite only and you have to submit an idea to get access to the research. They're both much better than Seeking Alpha.

You can get a delayed membership to value investor club, which is good if you want to see the thought process that goes into generating ideas.

SumZero is pretty good, You can also join for something like $129 a month. They have a 30-day money back guarantee.. so you could do that and cancel if you don't like it..