The openness of analyst work in HF

Hi WSO,

I'm picking up in my work in my HF. Now that I'm there, I need some pointers and working with the senior PMs.

I'm sensing this open nature of working in a HF which at times has caught me of guard. It seems that there's a pacing to the work, pacing relative to my rank of analyst, and pacing relative to how close an idea is to trading.

Example one: my boss PM sends me an email, with a template, on portfolio construction. I start putting in some numbers to derive results. Upon showing him, his reply was "We're still in the research phase. That template is to give you an idea when we get there." Um ... okay. I guess being prepared doesn't work.

Example two: a firm wide meeting confirmed the move to investing another product. In his words, the CIO is "keen on it." The consensus was to take existing ideas, which we've used for the last two years, but apply them to this new product. Naturally, I did some cursory work on the short falls of this existing model on new product, i.e. liquidity. Then upon a chat with my boss PM, he said let's still focus on improving the existing model on the existing product. Trading the new product will come.

Anyone experience this same non-definitive, open-ended nature of hedge fund work where you seem to be at a lost on getting your program to trade money.

Sincerely Yours,
Nijikon