Citadel versus DE Shaw versus Bridgewater

Citadel fires people monthly and has a rough culture. DE Shaw is better and is no longer just a quant firm and has expanded into fundanmental based strategies, but the culture of the place is not that great in my opinion. No opinion on Bridgewater, they are big, but no one thinks of them a great fund.

There are other large funds that recruit out of undergrad.

I've also heard shitty stories about Citadel, but pretty favorable ones about DE Shaw from college buddies who are still there.

can you elaborate LB Banker?

high turnover, dog-eat-dog environment. wait, i guess that's like my analyst class here.

I assure you no bb is as high turnover or dog-eat-dog as certain hedge funds... ASSURE you of that fact.

I'm assured.

Napoleon, could you elaborate a bit on the "not that great" culture at DE Shaw?

of people who used to work there who left, they said the culture was stuffy, somewhat academic, which is how the fund started (hired very smart, academic people, quants, etc). B/c it's so big now, the place might have changed or different sub-funds might have different cultures, but its not really the kind of place where people go out for drinks afterwards (so not a terrible culture by any means, just not for everyone, especially ex-bankers)

Thanks

I just started working at Bridgewater and I think once you absorb their somewhat unique culture and way of looking at things it's an amazing place to work. People are really motivated and as far as I can tell comp is good.

In terms of quality, it really depends on what your definition is in terms of hedge funds. If you mean which hedge fund will give you highest total return, then we will never be at the top of that list, because returns are only one facet of what our clients want. If, on the other hand, you define best as consistently being able to consistently generate the most profit year after year, then I'm 100% certain we will be near the top of those rankings for a long time.

Let me know if you have specific questions about us. You can reach me at [email protected]

I think once you absorb their somewhat unique culture and way of looking at things it's an amazing place to work.

Care to elaborate? How's the culture unique? How does the firm "look at things"?

Bridgewater strongly encourages open communication. Expect to give and receive a lot of criticism. If you think your boss (or for that matter, the ceo) is screwing up, you tell that person. There is a lot of lateral movement within the company, and it is run more along the lines of a startup than a well established financial institution. Titles are largely meaningless and you are given responsibility according to your own abilities and desires, with little concern for seniority.

As far as our outlook, look up portable alpha.

I've actually seen Bridgewater's returns for their Pure Alpha Composite (I worked for a FOF), and I was not impressed at all. The fund returned ~3.5% in '06 and about the same in '05. Since '91 its return has been around 9%. So why then is Bridgewater the second largest HF?

DE Shaw of course!

BW best by far

Completely different options here..

Pretty sure Citadel (the multi-manager hedge fund not securities) doesn't even recruit new grads (unless it's their quant strategies group and most likely PhD/MSc grads not undergrads).

Bridgewater recruits quants (investment logic engineers) and traditional macro analysts (investment analyst).

DE Shaw recruits for its fundamental groups and quant groups.