Michael Scotti of Traders Magazine recently reviewed a book that should be on your list of bedtime reading, especially if you’re interested in a hedge fund job.
Diary of a Hedge Fund Manager: From the Top, to the Bottom, and Back Again tells the story of a middle-class kid from Thunder Bay, Ontario, who earns a hockey scholarship to Yale University. He parlayed that into an entry-level equity sales job at Credit Suisse during the height of the dot-com boom.
The author, Keith McCullough, then moved to a hedge fund as a junior analyst. Within 3 years, he was earning more than $1 million a year as a hedge fund portfolio manager.
The book covers the frothy period from the dot-com crash through to the hedge fund bubble and ends with the with the subprime meltown. At one point, McCullough reached seven figures in annual compensation, not too shabby for a 27-year-old.
Reviewer Scotti says Diary of a Hedge Fund Manager is an easy read, covering the history of hedge funds, their meteoric growth in the past decade. And it gives readers a look at past- and present-day superstar hedge fund managers through the eyes of an industry insider.
You can read Scotti’s review at Trader’s Magazine Online. Or order your own copy of the book through Amazon.
Have you read it yet? Any comments? We’d like to know what you think. (Just leave a comment below).
Forget traditional hedge funds says Bloomberg writer Matthew Lynn. The next megatrend in international markets will be foreign exchange, and currency traders are set to be the new kings of the financial world.
Lynn points out that rising sovereign-debt crises, such as in Greece and Portugal, along with the gradual weakening of the US dollar and the search for a new safe-haven reserve currency, will all put currency traders in the driver’s seat.
Every decade has its financial hero. In the 80’s it was mergers and acquisitions deal makers. In the 90’s it was the venture capitalists, who backed promising tech start-ups, with help from bankers who arranged the IPOs. In the 2000’s, it was clearly hedge funds and derivative traders and engineers.
But in the two-thousand and teens, it’s going to be currency traders. Already, a big spike in activity on London’s global currency-trading hub, along with a 28 percent rise in foreign-exchange trading volumes in the U.S., adds further fuel to the fire.
“Great financial reputations and fortunes will be made in foreign exchange in the coming years,” Lynn writes, suggesting that any smart, ambitious grad finishing university this year, or anyone planning to move up a rung on the hedge fund job ladder would be wise to enter the sector.
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Have you seen or heard of increased interest in currency trading? (reply by clicking comments below)
Although women manage only a small slice of the hedge fund pie, they are enjoying increasing success in both performance and promotions, according to a new survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Between 2000 and 2009, women-owned firms delivered an average 9.06% annual returns, compared to a 5.82% average for all funds, according to data from Hedge Fund Research and reported in an article in The Guardian. Another study, by the U.S.-based National Council for Research on Women, shows that women are more likely to take a “holistic and risk-intelligent” approach to investing than men. And in the recent, turbulent years for markets, such a risk-averse approach can pay off.
Hedge funds may offer a more level playing field for women, as well. Compared with other financial institutions, hedge funds tend to have flatter organizational structures, with few layers and more opportunity to have a visible impact on the success of the firm. There are also more opportunities for flexible working hours, which enable women to better balance their work-family life without having to leave their jobs.
Nevertheless, women still manage just 3 percent of a $1.5 trillion global hedge fund industry. Which leaves plenty of room for women to play a greater role.
