Date: December 9th, 2012 2:11 AM Author: insane parlor
this is a silly question but i'll bait based on desirability of employment.
pershing - 8bn aum, 8 or 9 investment professionals. you do the math, these guys kill it while twiddling their thumbs
greenlight - einhorn is smarter than everyone in the game
baupost - klarman is the greatest investor of his generation but i'm anti-boston. also they do mostly distressed and other credit type securiites
viking - know really smart guys who work / worked there. top tiger cub.
paulson - still had the "greatest trade ever" and nailed a few of the post-crisis steps but he's a merger arb guy who got lucky and can't handle managing this kind of size. you read zuckerman's book on him and think he's certianly smart, buy you'd never give him money to manage.
Date: December 9th, 2012 2:21 AM Author: insane parlor
yea klarman runs a relatively small equity book. he sets his team up in an interesting way - people don't focus on sectors, they focus on situations - distressed, post-reorg equity, real estate, etc.
i think einhorn is probably just straight smarter, he understands things on an accounting and business basis in a way that I and everyone I compete with only wishes they could.
second, he does a deeper level of analysis. go back and look at his original presentation on green mountain. he's quoting the 1999 10-k, he's talked to every supplier, employees of everyone etc. few, if any people are doing that level of diligence. then look at his actual thesis. it's so smart and simple. gmcr was a huge growth story trading at a huge multiple. einhorn says ok: 1 - the growth opportunity is much smaller than the market believes. 2 - patent expirations and these new agreements with sbux and dnkn mean that the business will be much less profitabile than it's been. 3 - the whole business is likely a fraud that produces no cash
Date: December 22nd, 2012 3:46 AM Author: Translucent black woman stead
any suggestions? should i just try to find alumni on linkedin and cold call? i do like reading about value investing and reading company analysis from hedge fund types on blogs and whatnot.
i'm not 100% committed to MBB, i just had a friend there who was able to get my resume on the right people's desks and i went in and interviewed before official interview season started. assuming i can't get any kind of internship offer in buyside, am i a lot better off trying to do BB over teh summer?
Date: December 22nd, 2012 3:53 AM Author: insane parlor
they are hard, but not at all harder than megafund pe. go look at the background of the most-mba associates at KKR's website. wharton -> goldman -> blackstone pe -> hbs
Date: December 22nd, 2012 3:45 AM Author: insane parlor
if you believe in a semi-strong or strong efficient market hypothesis then no it doesn't. but those notions are completely absurd to any industry practitioner.
also the idea that if everyone believed the emh then no one would do work and there would then be mispricings...
Date: December 22nd, 2012 3:56 AM Author: wonderful dull dysfunction state
jesus I'm not denying these assholes are rich. yeah, famous hf bros are famous hf bros.
if you're talking about relative intelligence within the industry then dalio is a moronic answer and einhorn is little better without a better explanation than idiot op can provide. accounting knowledge? fucking lol
Date: December 22nd, 2012 3:59 AM Author: insane parlor
intelligent investor, security analysis, you can be a stock market genius (terrible title) margin of safety, quality of earnings, fooling some of the people all of the time wouldn't be a bad start
Date: December 22nd, 2012 4:07 AM Author: insane parlor
it depends on your background. for better or worse most jobs have a set path that often involve a banking analyst program. check wall street oasis, i'm sure someone with your exact background has asked how to "break in". i can try and give me 2 cents as well.
read as much as you can. valuewalk, marketfolly, distresseddebtinvesting, dealbreaker all good sites to keep up on. do your own research, if you have an untraditional background but can articulate a good thesis on a name, people will listen.
Date: December 22nd, 2012 4:13 AM Author: Razzle-dazzle electric furnace university
tytyty. i didn't know most of those websites.
what's great about culture of wso is that people are willing to help and mentor each other, whereas on xo people are out to destroy the lives of others.
i've been reading wso more and more lately. i vaguely plant to do a msf or mba, then pray for an analyst job. after that, i don't know enough about the field to make an intelligent decision.
Date: December 30th, 2012 9:39 PM Author: insane parlor
there are different legal jobs at a hedge fund. compliance, more general counsel, etc. i'd guess the legal team at pershing (headed by an ex wlrk partner) do interesting work. proxy fights and such.
your hours will be better and predictable. the legal guys i see on my floor are probably working 50 - 60 (closer to 50) hours a week and i never see them on weekends. your pay will probably be lower. you will probably be happier. i think this difference is probably true of going in house anywhere, not just a hedge fund. hedge funds might pay better though.
Date: December 30th, 2012 10:01 PM Author: insane parlor
stop spending time on xoxo
depending on the dynamics of your team you could have wildly differente experiences. a big distinction in workflow is the need to jam things down people's throats. in banking it's often the best course of action to send something out and forget about it until you hear otherwise. i've found in this job everyone has so many things going on that you need to really stay on top of them to get ideas across and get questions answered.
ask lots of questions. to contrast with banking, everyone who does this job at a senior level loves it. some love it too much.
no real advice on the actual investing side because even l/s means very different things at different places.