hedge funds

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 wondering what I should/could aim for. 1) First of all, is the visa situation for EU citizens a real hassle or I'll get away with it? 2) Should I aim for a senior analyst position or is it too much given my experience? 3) How would you filter the research? Trying to get to a sizeable HF (>$1bn AUM) or

27 Sep 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 financial district more so than Yale. Though I cannot disregard Yale's network opportunity through name power alone. Chicago is a financial hub for hedge funds so it makes sense to attend UChicago. At the end of the day, if three students graduated with the same extracurricular activities, GPA, and

17 May 2021

What are some of the hardest technical questions that you've been asked in a hedge fund interview?

24 Aug 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 but not in HF as UChicago or Dartmouth. I've even heard Dartmouth is heavy in IB(which is not what I want to do even if it's the conventional route to HF). I'm having difficulty deciding which school to attend. More consideration: Yale did not offer very good financial aid. Dartmouth 100% aid

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 an CS engineer (before my MBA), I understood the solution and started explaining it to the PM. This stupid senior analyst pulled me to the side and started telling me how I shouldn't be explaining anything to the PM as he's been doing this for a long time and I have just joined and I should be more

21 Jun 2021

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

17 Mar 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" certificates in the finance industry that I can earn by taking a "FREE" Linkedin course and passing the end test and I get rewarded with an icon that I can post on my Linkedin Profile?

20 Jul 2021

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

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

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 delete my account and vanish which WSO does not allow.

31 May 2021

I am an undergrad at a lower Ivy. The pool of competition over the years has gotten fiercer and the opportunities for HF have gotten smaller. With the pool getting that much bigger, how much would a CFA® stand out for HF?

24 May 2021

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 stock and be done with it? It takes 5 minutes. Put all your eggs into one basket (Apple). And then HODL and DO NOTHING FOR THE NEXT 5-20 Years. Whats wrong with having 100% of your funds' allocation in Apple? (And stop the 100-hour work-week?) If you do this, you wont need to know all these

10 Sep 2021

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 not sure if I'm cut out for a career of fast-paced, instant gratification for the rest of my life. If I go into S&T for FT, I'll probably be in Sales, which I worry won't give me any hard skills. I prefer long-term, strategic thinking, and I enjoy qualitative stuff like writing, though I can code and

30 Apr 2021

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 mediocre GPA, and no prior contacts in the industry, I specifically found the Q&A/AMA posts to be quite eye opening. Now ~6 years removed from college, I figured that it may be worth hosting my own Q&A/AMA under a new username as a way to pay it forward. Happy to answer any and all questions as it

29 Sep 2021

I've heard this used in the following context: "How much is X company going to comp year over year?" What does this mean?

23 Aug 2021

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 PE/HF roles? Haven't seen this at my EB even though most Americans exit. Any insights would be much appreciated.

28 Apr 2020

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 portfolios but have also helped with opportunistic/strategy-focused mandates). My role is a portfolio analytics-heavy role and consists of creating these pro forma portfolios that fit client objectives. I also help write portfolio commentary for a couple of mandates. Happy to take any questions, especially

20 Aug 2020

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 consolidated immediately in real time vs. a few hours or days later based on research reports. How often do you listen to earnings calls and what exactly are you listening for? What desk you sit on and role would be helpful.

24 Oct 2020

Hi, 1. What are the top 10 Mathematical Finance programs (or other Masters programs) in the UK, which are target schools for quant hedge funds and prop trading firms? 2. Is it true that the UK doesn't have a significant number of quantitative hedge funds or prop trading firms? Are there any issues that you would want to warn me about, if I plan on pursuing an MSc in Mathematical Finance to get into quant funds/prop shops in the UK? I am not applying to the US because of the H1B lottery uncertainty and applying to the UK bcs of its upcoming 2 year post study work visa.

16 Nov 2020

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 do the large MMs target only a few % points of alpha with "highly levered money"? - What does being paid on drawdown mean? Would greatly appreciate any insight anyone can share.

20 Feb 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 systematically maintaining long volatility. My main strategy, synthetic futures, is based on a straight forward points system, trading either long or short on the major indexes (DOW, S&P, & Nasdaq). The goal was to create portfolios that were positively skewed, had relatively little correlation to the market

26 May 2019

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 idea, to taking a position, to monitoring the position, and finally what happens when it's time to close it out. I'll explain all of that and will also try and do Q&A in this thread also to help anyone with specific questions. Before I get into that, here is a bit about my background that will help you guys understand what my investment approach is like.

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 having on markets and the hedge fund industry as a whole. The hedge fund industry isn't going away Bloomberg and the Financial Times have written quite a few articles recently that highlight "major" hedge fund closings. Whether it be an old, established firm closing its doors due to bad market

13 Mar 2016

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 L/S equity but feedback from any strategy (e.g. macro) would be great. Thank you!

24 Aug 2020

Anyone know anything about the roles below? https://www.citadelsecurities.com/careers/details… https://www.citadelsecurities.com/careers/details… Also does anyone have any insight with Citadel's culture? Doesn't seem like the environment where they try to build you up (from a junior perspective).

09 Dec 2020

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 from the comments from my last thread, so I figured if anyone still has questions from the last post, or new questions, I'd be happy to answer them here. I can field questions related to breaking in, recruiting, the investing process itself, lifestyle, etc. I've just recently been getting a bit more

07 May 2012

I've just been taken off the Princeton undergrad waitlist, I've already committed to UChicago but it is not too late to switch. Out of Princeton and UChicago, which school is stronger for HF out of undergrad? Considering many things such as education, network, alumni connection, job placement, and more.

01 Jun 2021

Monkeys, As year 1 closes in, I've begun struggling with what I suppose is some sort of quarter life crisis. For many of us in banking, life to this point has been a constant series of "successes"--do well in high school, go to a top college, break into a top group on Wall Street--with the next target being a coveted buyside gig.

18 Apr 2011

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 probably get around 680-700. I've completed a bunch of Insidesherpa virtual experience modules and I'm doing 2 courses on coursera ( python and investment management). I've recently started to trade penny stocks with a small sum, I'd like to take this forward too. I want to make big money in the comings

23 Aug 2020

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 for RE related stocks. RE services, home builders, hotels, casinos, infrastructure, and any other non-real estate companies where real estate holdings are the main value driver (SHLD) are all fair game.

03 Aug 2018

So Martin Shkreli showed up on the radio show "The Breakfast Club" with Charlemagne Tha God. Interviewed pharma-bro and they brought up the secret society "Bridger Capital", the Illuminati of Hedge Funds. Shkreli was shocked that Charlemagne Tha God knew of this group and that he had been invited to meet them (he posted pictures of the conference room on instagram--now deleted) What do you guys know about it? - bazaar rituals - secret society of upper echelons of finance - who is in it

13 Feb 2016

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 removes those distortions in favor of actual alpha from getting earnings/catalysts right. I'm wondering whether there are concentrated single manager funds that put on a few high conviction long and short positions but target very low net exposure as well - seems like that kind of model would exhibit

09 Dec 2020

So, the age old question...what is more useful for a long term career in finance, the CFA® , the MBA, or the CAIA? Wait, a minute, what even is the CAIA? This article will go through the pros and cons of pursuing each of these three certifications. The upfront economic costs and opportunity costs of the MBA may be significantly higher than CFA requirements, but an MBA does certainly have many intangible benefits such as networking and develops a broader base of professional problem solving and professional skills. The CFA is very targeted towards finance and investment management careers, and is now being sought out more and more by professional firms for the recruitment process.

31 Oct 2010

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 choices: 1) A few opportunities at big ($3B+), stable HFs Pros: big, stable, decent lifestyle (go home by 7PM) Cons: Heirarchical, i'm just another senior analyst, pay is good but upside is capped 2) One really hot startup. Founder is a big deal and think they will be $1B+ with any decent performance

27 Mar 2017

I came across this kid who thinks he is a great trader on YouTube, and he was able to impress the judges on this TV show where you can pitch business venture ideas and attain seed funding to start a mini hedge fund.

27 Jul 2012

Hi guys, Credit Suisse is recruiting at my school for summer 2013 internships. They asked us to contact the recruiter with our resumes and which division(s) we were most interested in: investment banking, S&T, and research (fixed income/equities). I have no interest in investment banking, so that narrows it down to S&T or research for me. As someone who wants to work at a hedge fund/start one (the latter is a more long term plan lol) and already has experience managing OPM, etc. which would be a better opportunity to prepare me for a future hedge fund career...sales & trading or research? I hear research pays a little better, but there are a lot of jobs being cut in that department? Any thoughts from members here? I'd love to hear. Thanks again!

14 Oct 2012

Hat Tip to International Pymp for sending this to me. Very insightful interview with BlueMountain, a great long/short credit fund: BlueMountain Capital Management was one of just nine managers on the receiving end of 38% of all new money put into hedge funds this year, according to a report earlier this month from Bloomberg News. The multi-strategy, long-short credit house launched by Stephen Siderow and Andrew Feldstein in 2003 with $300 million now manages about $7 billion-about $5.3 billion in hedge funds and $1.7 billion in collateralized loan obligations. FINalternatives Senior Reporter Mary Campbell spoke to Siderow recently about credit market opportunities, ratings-constrained investors and how a version of "the Paulson trade" saw BlueMountain through the financial crisis.

06 Dec 2011

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 fund called NAYA, run by an ex partner of The Childrens Investment Fund.

16 Jun 2020

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 analyst/research grunt/data-entry peon. Our firm performs market/investment research across a wide number of industries, and hedge funds make up the lion's share of our clientele (our research has also been featured in WSJ, FT, etc.). I am currently 3 weeks into an MFIN program at a fairly

26 Jul 2017

So I wanted to give some people hope. I will keep my firm names anonymous, but I want to give people help. I am just going to have some random points, and want people to ask anything or even state if you disagree so we can get a nice discussion going. My Profile: I graduated in 2011 with a technology degree and economics degree from a non-target school (NYC area). I graduated with less than a 3.0. My Career Progression: 1st Year Operations BB Bank - Automated my job -> Promoted to group of my choice (Couldn't land IB, and glad I never did it (hours insane and pay is better on buy-side - if your good) - but IB is still a good place to start though if you can break in. I chose the internal hedge fund - which was disbanded in 2013 from Dodd-Frank)

26 Apr 2014

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 more than a tiny cog in a vast investment banking machine. Hours of mundane labor leave you feeling like your contribution will never be recognized. You wonder if you've made the right career decision, and you wonder how much longer you can stand being just a cog in the machine. You need to take a

05 Dec 2015

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 detailed answer to a question I asked two years ago: .Tiger cubs vs. hedge fund gaints. This isn't really about investing strategy (credit vs. l/s equity vs. activist), though certain strategies lend themselves better to certain structures. Hopefully others can chime in with additional insights. Hedge

03 Aug 2014

Which of the two best prepares you for a career in distressed debt investing at a hedge fund? I'm aware both backgrounds usually end up in DD HFs but if you had a choice between the two coming out of college, which would you prefer?

08 May 2020

I wanted to see what knowledge anyone can share about the firing rates at various types/sizes of hedge funds. I know this will depend a lot on performance in a given year, so it would be interesting to get a sense of what the rate looks like in a good year, bad year, average year. Have heard rumors that many shops have a blanket "fire bottom 20% each year" policy etc., so wanted to see how accurate/widespread that sort of policy is. Would also be interested in how the firing is distributed by role. Thanks very much for any info on this - didn't see a consolidated thread about this, and have

15 Nov 2014

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 how working in Credit Risk for GS won't benefit me towards this goal. What are the exit options like for as a Credit Risk Analyst? Opportunities to work for a hedge fund/asset manager? Maybe distressed debt, special situations? Any insights will be super helpful. Thanks

02 Oct 2021

Is it possible to begin a career in wealth management and ultimately transition into PE/HF? An example timeline: Begin at very successful wealth management firm. After 1st year pass Series 7. After 3rd year, attend school for MBA in finance (or related). After biz school, begin as an associate (ideally at BB) in IBD. Pay my dues, pick up PE/HF job. Is this possible, albeit along an unconventional path? I am obsessed with finance and doing it all in Russian related business, I just didn't figure this out until halfway through my junior year of university...Therefore just trying to get my foot in the door of the finance game. Any thoughts would be much appreciated, really just trying to make the right choices. Thanks.

10 Oct 2011

A few months back, Jorge posted a link to a research paper showing a correlation between the mood of tweets and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The study proved to be interesting, since it aggregated a large amount of random tweets which had nothing to do with the stock market, but displayed a significant correlation. Twitter mood predicts the stock market These guys are taking it a step further. The Derwent Absolute Return Fund, aka The Twitter Fund, seeks to use a similar strategy, following tweets to determine mood and sentiment following a news event. The technology, dubbed The Fourth Dimension, has managed to pull in 25 Million Pounds from investors for the fund, according to CNBC.

23 Dec 2010

The story of John Paulson is absolutely fascinating, the stuff dreams are made of. In less than 5 years, the guy goes from being a mediocre merger arb guy to a personal net worth of $16 BILLION. To put that in perspective, Paulson accumulated more wealth since 2006 than Soros had in his entire 40+ year career. HIs fund now has $30+ billion AUM and is the envy of the hedge fund world. Every finance student at HBS and Wharton would cut off their balls to work there.

24 Jun 2011

Nearly 300 new hedge funds opened their doors for business in the first quarter of 2011. This is the largest number of hedge fund launches since before the financial crisis, performance and asset tracker Hedge Fund Research reports. Though it is getting easier than ever to open a hedge fund, it is becoming tougher and tougher to keep the lights on. From January-March of this year, 181 hedge funds went out of business, the highest level of liquidations since the first quarter of 2010. In the same quarter a year earlier, 240 funds shut down, while 158 closed during the fourth quarter of 2010. It

18 Jun 2011

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") - just wanted to pass along a few thoughts as I think about my own career. 1. You are never the smartest guy in the room. Conviction is one of the most important things you can have in investing, but it's alter-ego, arrogance, can devastate your career. Knowing from day one that you will never understand

16 Dec 2014