A recent Forbes article discusses how much control the quants are now wielding in the stock market.The article states that 70% of all equity volume is driven by computer models and that these models continue to trigger surges in buy or sell orders. Some 30% of all trades are being done in dark pools — alternative trading systems (also known as the upstairs market). Given the hidden nature of this activity, ordinary investors are fighting with one arm tied behind their back and should beware.
Nine or more weeks of vacation, and none at all, both seem surprising. Four weeks comes up as the most common allotment, three weeks in a not-distant second place, and five and two weeks with close-to-equal frequency.
Over two hundred hedge fund professionals reported on their vacation in Hedge Fund Search Digest’s 2007 Compensation Survey.
We spoke with Kevin Collins of April International about his firm’s work in Asia and his approach to recruiting. This is the first part of a two-part interview.
Tell us about your office.
We have eight people, and we work days and into the night. We work until usually 11 pm or midnight, because we have a Hong Kong and Tokyo business.
It’s a round-the-clock job.
I’m in from 11 in the morning until 5:00 or 5:30. Then I go home and have dinner with my wife, then come back at 8:00, and then I work until 11, sometimes 12.
But I’ve left here at 4:30 a.m., too, depending on what’s going on. Close a deal, do some dealing in Tokyo time. Time is relative — irrelevant, actually. It doesn’t mean anything in this global economy.
What’s the background of your international reach?
Maybe 15 years ago, Salomon Brothers asked us to find a Japanese-speaking accountant. We went out to dinner, came back, called all the American and British firms in Tokyo — that is, once we figured out how to dial a phone — and we asked if they knew anybody. Next thing you know they started calling us back saying, “We have positions we need help filling. Could you help us?” That was Japan.
[more…]
