hedge funds

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost Title summarizes the road I've traveled… consultant → intelligence community/SEAL Teams/Special Operations → director of research at a well known hedge fund → tech...

06 Jan 2022

Hello Fellow Monkeys, For some background, I've been a member of the WSO community for years. Wasn't always the most active poster but, like for many others, WSO served as an immensely helpful source of information for me throughout undergrad. Especially coming from a non-target school, with a...

29 Sep 2021

To get the typical q's out of the way: Fund type - blue chip MM/MS Group - macro/commodities (commodities focused, won't be more specific for anonymity) YOE/TC - in 3rd year, comp was ~ analyst 3 BB ish year 1, associate 3 BB ish year two. Base + 150, 300% roughly. First really big base bump this...

30 Jan 2022

Hi folks - I'm looking for an effective path to get into an L/S HF in LDN. As a background: - living in Europe - non-target MSc in Finance - worked 1.5yrs as an analyst on a growth long-only fund - worked 1.5yrs as an analyst on a small L/S growth HF (current) I'm considering moving to LDN and...

27 Sep 2021

Open to questions of any nature from students/recent grads/current professionals interested in hedge fund-of-fund platforms/portfolio analytics/product strategy. Background I am involved in constructing hedge FoF portfolios across the risk/return spectrum (focus mostly on broadly diversified...

20 Aug 2020

Currently an analyst with approx 6 months left on OPT. What happens to international students who don't get the h1-b visa? Are firms generally good with transferring people to other offices (assuming it's an EB/BB)? Also interested to hear if internationals in the US have been able to exit into...

28 Apr 2020

Hello Everyone, I'm just finishing my Master in Finance at ESSEC and I have experience as a Buy-Side Equity Analyst in an L/S Equity Fund pretty prestigious in Paris that got me interviews for the same positions at Rothschild/Lazard (in their equity funds) and in IB in ECM at Credit Suisse...

25 Apr 2022

Curious to hear where you guys went after your experience on the trading floor. This would be incredibly helpful for us younger folks in the industry! Undergrad Major: Years on Trading Floor: S&T Desk Role & Position: Where you are now: Salary/Comp: Any Advice?:

27 Nov 2020

Hey guys, Looking for some advice here I go to a public target (UVA/Berkeley/Michigan/UTAustin) & I've secured a FT role from an upper mid-market bank in NYC (Jefferies/RBC/William Blair) doing IB. My goal is eventually jump into a L/S fundamental HF after my 1-2 year analyst stint and I've seen...

03 Jan 2022

How long does GPA matter in finance, asset management, or in the HF world? Does uni GPA still matter after your first job? After your second job out of school? At one point does it not matter at all if ever?

15 Mar 2021

I'm a nontraditional student newly out of active duty military. I've been admitted to a few good schools. Though, my school choice will ultimately depend on the job opportunities post-undergrad. My school choices are Yale, UChicago, and Dartmouth. Dartmouth and UChicago have a large focus on the...

17 May 2021

I've been accepted to the above schools. Some of the discussions have a consensus that Yale through connection opportunities outweigh the other schools for HF/VC opportunities out of undergrad even though UChicago and Dartmouth have a large finance placement. Brown has a large consulting placement...

20 May 2021

Hey guys, I recently joined a tech focused HF as an analyst, everything is going smooth except one thing, this dummy senior analyst in the team. We were doing the very preliminary work on an investment case that's very tech focused where the underlying technology was not easy to understand, me being...

21 Jun 2021

I dont want to pay thousands of dollars for a CFA designation. Nor paying hundreds-thousands of dollars for a IB/HF specific online learning course to earn a PASS badge. I am trying to use my Linkedin profile to connect myself with Investment Banks and Hedge Funds. Are there any well known "FREE"...

20 Jul 2021

A U.S.-based global insurance company (Company X) hired a new CEO who was serving as CEO of Company Y which he co-founded with Hedge Fund Z as a hedge fund reinsurer in his tax heaven hometown. According to public disclosures he no longer had any personal interest in Y when he joined X. But the same...

20 Apr 2022

Hey monkeys. This is my first post on here, would like to get some genuine advice, maybe from older people in the industry. I'm doing my junior summer in S&T at a GS/MS/JPM. I like the people at the firm, I like the S&T lifestyle, and I know I find the content of the job interesting. However, I'm...

30 Apr 2021

I have a quick question for any one on the forum who could help. I previously worked as an junior level investment analyst. I could not get promoted, so I left in 2017 to start my own shop. I ran a multi-strategy convex portfolio designed to create asymmetric returns with a strong focus on...

26 May 2019

Mod Note (Andy): Best of Eddie, this was originally posted in 2010. To see all of our top content from the past, click here. "The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights." - John Paul Getty After a particularly brutal day at the office, you might go home feeling like you're nothing...

05 Dec 2015

Hi guys, I'm an average undergrad student(20 yo) from an average uni in Bangalore, India. GPA - 7.5, 2 internships in wealth management ( not well-known firms), 1 on-going internship in quantitative finance( not a well-known frim). I'll be writing CFA L1, feb 2021. yet to take the GMAT, I'll...

23 Aug 2020

Mod note (Andy): Throwback Thursday, this post originally went up on 4/23/12. Hey guys, so after some encouragement from a few of you guys I'm gonna go ahead and start a bit of a series of posts on my experience in the hedge fund industry, particularly in how one goes from the start of an investment...

02 Apr 2015

It's been a while since I posted (sorry AndyLouis) so I decided to come back with something a little different from my previous posts. I'll continue the E&F posts at some point, but given recent market conditions I thought this was more appropriate. The below is a compilation of thoughts I've been...

13 Mar 2016

Keeping up with the news is (of course) a huge part of the work being done as an analyst or associate, but how often is that just listening in and taking notes on an earnings call? They present essential information but I wonder about the difference in getting that information updated in models and...

24 Oct 2020

As the title says, can someone shed some light on the top math finance programs in the UK that are target for quant investing/trading roles in the buyside/prop trading firms? Thanks

16 Nov 2020

Mod Note (Andy) - as the year comes to an end we're reposting the top discussions from 2015, this one ranks #44. This one was originally posted 10/19/2015. If you've seen some of my other posts you know that I'm not a stock picker, deal maker, or quant - I'm an institutional investor. Every day our...

21 Dec 2015

Mod Note: Each day we'll be posting the top WSO forum posts of 2014. This one was originally posted on 5/28/14 and ranks #24 for the year by total silver banana count. You can see all our top ranked content here. My background is posted in my Q&A ("Q&A: Credit Analyst at +$5B Distressed Shop") -...

16 Dec 2014

Hey guys, Pretty much what it says on the tin. I'm asking mostly about London. Is there no IB analyst equivalent job in terms of exit opportunities but with a better work/life balance (better hours). I know consulting can lead to an exit into PE but not to a Hedge Fund. I am already running a...

22 Aug 2019

Finance is so complicated, you gotta know stuff like Discount-Cash-Flow, EBITA, Mergers & Acquisitions, Buy-Side Sell-Side, Algorithms, graduate from Harvard, work 100 hours a week and etc/etc. Why dont ALL Investment Banks, Hedge Funds and Private Equity Firms just put ALL their money into Apple...

10 Sep 2021

I am deleting my intro thread because I got a response that was not really what I was looking for. I don't think I joined the right forum. It was actually scary to read that many folks on this thread are hardcore racists (KKK types). No wonder you get negative responses. I really wish I could simply...

31 May 2021

Figured many people are on the same boat, so wanted to start a thread. Has anyone received the HireVue yet?

17 Mar 2021

hi peps, apologies if this topic has already been covered in previous posts. I am familiar with the PE landscape in London however if I was to name L/S equity funds beyond the large American platforms (i.e. Citadel, P72, DE Shaw) I would not know where to start. I did hear some great things about a...

16 Jun 2020

Hello everyone I have a background in clinical research (I analyze clinical trials). I recently started my own biotech consulting company that has a small network of SMEs. I want to analyze pivotal clinical trials of publicly traded companies and sell the reports to hedge funds. The reports would...

04 Jan 2022

As we have entered 2022, there is a mounting risk from the new Omicron variant. The pandemic can end in one of the two ways, either we achieve "zero Covid-19" or the disease becomes an ongoing part of the infectious diseases coterie. We believe societies will have to adapt to living alongside...

01 Jan 2022

Hedge Fund Structure Over the last few months I've realized just how diverse hedge funds are, and how little people (both in/out of the industry) understand about the different structures. This is my attempt to distill some of the bigger differences in 'team structure and compensation'. It's a...

03 Aug 2014

I know the view is that the top tiger cubs are all buy and hold investors (who have shorts to offset) with 2-5 year views, but looking at 13Fs and in meetings you notice there is still a decent amount of focus on quarters and earnings. What is the view from your experiences with them? Or are some...

10 Mar 2022

Could someone who has experience working at a L/S fund clearly explain how hedge funds observe the following risk limits: - What is the difference between market-neutral, beta-neutral, and having some X% of "net exposure"? - What is the difference between being factor-neutral and factor-aware? - Why...

20 Feb 2021

Full disclosure, I'm biased to the HF path, but have friends at top PE shops. First things first, PE and HF are two fundamentally different career paths. Yes, they're both buyside gigs and both pay extremely well. However, it's the differences you'll have to pay attention to. Hedge fund modeling and...

10 Apr 2013

Hey folks! I was told to introduce myself to you all/tell everyone a little about me, so here goes... I've worked in finance for 4 years now, but in a fairly limited way. I have an extensive academic background in analytic philosophy and behavioral psychology, and ended up working for a friend as an...

26 Jul 2017

I have noticed a number of hedge funds presenting themselves as "best idea" hedge funds lately. While the name seem pretty obvious, I'm just wondering if anyone has worked at such a hedge fund and can shed light on how it actually differs from all other hedge funds (since presumably, they too only...

06 Jun 2019

I'm at something of a career cross-roads. I'm ~30, been in the L/S industry for ~6 years with mixed success. Started out at a large fund, then joined and left two startups that didn't work out. In one of them I had directly managed capital and a really strong track record. Now I'm faced with a few...

27 Mar 2017

Have any of you guys heard from your funds about potential return timelines for coming back into the office? My office was originally supposed to have some traders return back next week but now that's been pushed back indefinitely. Originally the plan was to have everyone back by September but it...

07 Jul 2020

Have an offer to work as an operations analyst at a hedge fund administration firm. "The position will expose the Junior Operations Analyst to all financial markets and products traded globally, including highly complex derivative instruments." During the interview the directors said I will be...

15 Jun 2018

Many people here on WSO are obsessed with hedge funds and look upon the mutual fund industry with disdain. However, I have seen a lot of misinformation out there on what mutual funds even do, so I wanted to layout the basics of both hedge funds and mutual funds and what makes them similar and what...

12 Jan 2013

I know a bunch of hedge funds that invest in real estate, but does anyone know of hedge funds that primarily invest in publicly traded REITs and RE related companies? LDR Capital Management is the only I found that is somewhat close to what I'm looking for. I'm going to use a pretty broad definition...

03 Aug 2018

Hey guys, I've accepted the offer to work as a Credit Risk Analyst for Goldman Sachs in Warsaw after I graduate. I love investing and stocks and my direction is to work in asset management, perhaps work for a hedge fund and start my own investment fund as I accrue skills and knowledge. I can't see...

02 Oct 2021

Prior reading: Hedge Fund: The Investment Life Cycle. Quick background: Penn undergrad - 2 years at AM firm - 2 years at large HF - currently in 1st year at 2-3b long/short HF with heavy emphasis on value. I still had some questions floating around my inbox that I may have missed and some questions...

07 May 2012

Hello, From what I've read it seems like the big knock on L/S single manager funds is that they're just capturing beta/market cycles (e.g. tech growth funds that did really well this year are just benefiting from a risk-on environment) and the argument for MM funds is that the market neutral model...

09 Dec 2020

Would someone with actual work experience at a MM platform (Millennium/Citadel/P72/BAM or similar) be kind enough to offer a high-level overview of common techniques that are used to contain (a) portfolio volatility and (b) draw downs, to the platform's required parameters for a pod? I am thinking...

24 Aug 2020

I did one of these before a couple years back when i was on the sellside, and figured why not do another one since these threads seem to get a lot of traction and provide a lot of useful info for kids. My background: -Discretionary trader at a large hedge fund, focusing on credit and convertibles...

01 Jun 2015

Anyone see this ? https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/08/27/pau… Good read in my opinion. Funny how they tried to paint bush so sympathetic and as if he didn't deserve what he got etc (I guess that's the NewYorker for ya) . Thoughts on Elliot and his strategy? I think we need more hedge funds...

21 Aug 2018

Hi. To what extent a hedge fund would consider an "outsider" - with no economic background - for various tasks like geopolitical research, market and social trends and more administrative tasks ? I'm a PhD in geography / urban studies (with 4 books) trying to figure out the employment possibilities...

17 Dec 2020