Sundheim Is The Man - D1 cap thoughts
Bloomberg put out a piece on D1 today. Tremendous amount of respect for Sundheim, he really dug himself out of a hole and has been killing it. To be down 20% and then finish the quarter down 3%, that takes some serious skill; I don't know of many who can do that. My claim to fame is I went to the same school :) hurrah hurrah no frat stuff tho haha. His buddy Plotkin is having some trouble. If you are interested in L/S, D1 should be on your list. Scaled from $4bn to 20 in THREE years...sheeeeesh.
Does anyone know if D1 recruits from IB, or is it strictly MF PE and probably HBS I'm guessing? Put up 50% last year, and they probably have an investment team of what like 20-25 -- Sundheim at the top and then a bunch of analysts? Pay probably blows, guessing those analysts got juicy $1-5m bonuses last year.
Also, how sick of a name is D1.
Wonder how much of the returns is from stock picking versus beta and private markets/IPOs. Either way, it’s impressive he came out of that hole.
Are you saying he is lucky for his factor exposure?
No. I’m just genuinely curious.
Is picking the right sectors really just luck? Also, I highly doubt anyone at D1 is paying much attention to beta...
Dan is obviously an incredible investor. They have people from a variety of backgrounds, ex journalists, ex MFPE analysts/associates, analysts from MMHFs, ex bankers, Viking ppl that left with him, as well as quite a few people from the credit side at funds like Silver Point. Investment team is closer to 30-35 people.
Think you are exaggerating the comp for junior analysts there, like its been said, Junior analysts are viewed as a fixed cost before producing PnL and taking risk. Im sure some senior analysts made well over the numbers you outlined tho. Honestly who cares what comp is at a place like that, obviously its a great spot to work at no matter what.
do you have examples of the journalists who are now at HF's?
Sorry, I am not going to disclose people names on this forum. There are quite a few at really good funds tho, suprised me when I first heard about this trend.
You can find them on LinkedIn if you are really interested, just takes a bit of digging.
what is the logic or value add behind hiring an ex-journalist at these funds? Is it their research skillset or writing ability?
Investing isn't so different from investigative journalism, Scott Bessent has talked a bit about his switch from one to the other, though he did in college.
https://yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/4159-scott-bessent
Journalists are good at asking questions and connecting dots, arguably a harder skill to learn than accounting. Greg Steinmetz at RCG was at the WSJ for 15 years
Curious as well, doesn't seem like the experience would be value added for a HF role
No idea if you work in the space or not but there are of course many ways to understand a company. If you’re someone who’s covered the ins and outs of Big Tech as a journalist, then you’re going to be very useful when thinking about the narratives in those names and all the details about it. Maybe you don’t know the exact levers of the model that the analyst out of PE just built, but I personally think it’s an interesting skill set even in the HF context.
Took less than 15 seconds https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriepcohen/
Not at D1 but plenty in deep value have journalism background. David Poppe, ex-president of legendary Sequoia Fund, Greg Steinmetz etc
The reason for hiring journalists is pretty easy if you think about it. What is the role of an analyst at a hedge fund? They have two jobs, 1 to dig for/analyze information and find misconceptions in how the world/market views the information, 2 to convince the PM/firm to put on the position and be able to convey your conviction accurately. Enright explains this well on twitter.
A journalist does this in almost an identical manner, particularly financial crime journalists. They find sources for information and dig/analyze to find things out that other people dont know yet. They then have to convince people that the information they have found is correct and explain the ramifications on the world/why its worth printing.
I love this, makes a ton of sense. Select Equity Group also hires a ton of journalists. This skillset will have much greater value add to the investing process than any modeling-based/accounting skills. I wish I had the skillset of journalists in hindsight vs. spending junior years churning out M&A models.
Dan the man. Heard they had a crazy year last year, over 50% I think. Business Insider has a list of their VC investments, and I think several of them are going to IPO in the coming months. D1 is only like 3 years old, how much do you guys think an analyst that joined in 2018 made last year, what like $5m+? Maybe a junior analyst made like $1-2m. I think most analysts come from IB --> PE background, or maybe just IB.
Here we go again..
What frat was he in tho
ZBT
Aw yup Jew frats rise up
No doubt he is a legend, but I'm a little confused about how so much of the fund can be in privates. Back in 08 when people were doing this it led to serious liquidity issues at the fund level and over 6 years later you are able to buy HF secondaries for illiquid privates that were still being wound down. Assume that most of the capital is external since their returns have been OK except for 2020, so probably $1-2bn is Dan's personally (heard he was worth about $500mm-$1bn by the time he left Viking). Unless it's locked up and the lock-ups are perpetually rolling, it seems kind of risky? Probably way above my pay grade and that's why Dan Sundheim is a legend and I'm on WSO.
.
How are rolling lock ups structured exactly? Seems like that would just be like a HF that had really long notice periods for redemptions.
you only got one SB because everyone here was simping for dan. In fact, Bloomberg just put out a piece on how they used privates for collateral on bets that are now "melting down." $2B to be exact.
,
D1 is a solid place
Anyone have any friends there? I was reading his comments at the Sohn conference that he had changed his approach to shorting after the WSB fiasco earlier in the year. Curious what he is doing differently now?
Fucking love this kid Shaq - bro where do you learn this shit 😂.. I wish you the best of luck at graduation and prom, if those things are still on for you with COVID. D1 needs to sign this kid lmao
Shaq summarized pretty well. But the main thing he pointed out was “it was not a long painful short like tsla/hlf” the majority of pain happened in 2days ($500 squeeze). So he mentioned the learning was not to allow that to occur. In other words blow me up but I aint defending that shit nonstop.
I mean the dudes who shorted $500 gme are prolly doing just fine, $7 not so much. While TSLA shorts just been dead forever.
how much do these analysts make?
bout tree fiddy
that good enough for you?
Make sure to wipe your chin lol.
But ya Sundheim is a legend and he's built D1 very well.
A quick linkedin search showed that a lot of the junior guys weren't from the bulge / MF PE background. Lot's of guys with previous HF experience compared to spots like Viking or the likes. Saw places like Shumway / Farallon / Tiger Eye.
Provident quis et et dolor. Officiis libero beatae libero veritatis aliquam. Suscipit et qui sapiente dolore placeat ea. Voluptatem expedita deserunt quo rem labore voluptatibus. Sit quas quod at distinctio id et ratione. Optio et in necessitatibus omnis porro.
Quae voluptatibus enim blanditiis quod maiores. Inventore sunt dolorem dolorem vitae voluptates.
Praesentium voluptate hic provident nihil alias possimus fuga. Doloribus eaque ut vel enim libero voluptatem nulla. In expedita deserunt expedita repellat sit ducimus. Culpa id sunt esse cumque minima dignissimos nemo qui.
Esse aut asperiores quas sapiente nisi quia delectus. Rerum sed aut sit velit eum sint soluta qui. Sequi maiores iusto dolor velit placeat nemo.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Accusantium et doloremque est nostrum. Est nostrum est et mollitia incidunt debitis. Optio architecto saepe laboriosam tenetur illo.
Exercitationem impedit corporis consequatur fugiat. Sit aut omnis consequuntur velit inventore qui. Laboriosam harum autem quia quod voluptate vero ut ab. Ut autem eos velit reprehenderit quasi error. Eos cupiditate qui aliquam tempore ut non. Cupiditate in quae ex voluptatem neque vel quisquam. Adipisci esse consequatur sint at.