Vote: Chicago or Wharton or a US hedge fund

nspyhk

Thank you, Regirl07. Your advice is very helpful and it is what I have been thinking and debating about too.

Good traders dont' equal to successful founder of a new HF. Especially I don't have a US education and that makes it even harder to convince US LPs to invest with me. Investment is a monkey business and branding and selling capability is the ultimate key to success.

Morespring, Glad to meet you, I will send your my MSN and keep in touch

yyferboy, I was not trying to be arrogant and I am just an employee working for someone else. Nothing really awsome to be arrogant abt in the first place. I am just telling u a matter of fact that in my case Wharton is a negative NPV in short term. I don't think any Wharton MBA graduate joining a HF as junior will get paid USD 1 million a year.

stonewall

good post, valuable insights from market insiders.

my vote goes to 3 if your long term goal is to focus on Asian market and build ur own fund

I can't say MBAs is useless for HF, but none of my HF trader friends have MBA degrees (most of them hold either quant-oriented Ph.D or top Univ. undergrad degree). My understanding is MBAs might be a good long term investment for PE, VC, or corporate ppl except HF.

Good traders dont' equal to successful founder, but successful founder has to be good traders. You could partner with sb who is good on drafting the investment strategy, road show, PR all those crap.

no LPs would buy for your degree over ur prior tract record, just my two cents

stq

Happy to share.

If your eventual goal is to have your own fund, a top MBA (and W would qualify) would help a lot in terms of fundraising.  I am assuming you are talking about a legit, sizable fund, and not one of those "I am rich so I am going to do my thing and call it a fund" funds.  You probably already know, but for the benefit of others, the main capital sources for institutional funds out there are 1) pension funds 2) sovereign wealth funds and 3) high net worth individuals.  These people don't necessarily understand your track record or strategy, but they absolutely respect the brands on your resume (that goes for both school and work experience).  
People tend to think HF is all about being good at investing money, but that's only one side of the business.  You need to raise money before you can invest any.  How do you convince people, many of whom don't really understand finance at all, to give you their savings?  Saying "I have returned 20% for the past five years" isn't good enough; you could be a ponzi scheme for all they know.  They want to see names like GS/MS, top HF, top bschool...things that signal a "tried and proven" ability.  That's why pedigree is so important in this circle.  Open up a prospectus of any major fund, and you will find a list of the most well-respected schools and firms in the senior people's bios.    

-- by 会员 REgirl07 (2010/3/31 12:07:15)

这我不同意。。
1 能提供你第一笔seed capital 的人，一般都和你以前有过这样那样的接触，对你个人有一定了解，更不可能不懂finance
所以track record绝对绝对是#1, 没有track record一切免谈。。
那些对金融不太了解的其它投资者，一般都是你的基金走上正轨后逐渐通过各种其它的销售渠道进来的。。特别是新创立的基金，pension fund/SWF这种机构哪来的DD能力？你这钱多半是从FoF, PB这种地方来的。。


2 branding/reputation虽然重要，但为了一个W的brand，浪费两年时间去读书而不是为自己多攒2年的track record? 太夸张了吧？
美国虽然那些人都是名校出来的，但那是因为美国金融业很成熟，有自己的target school, 你如果不是那些学校出来根本就进不了这个行当。但LZ竟然已经进来的，那么之后绝对是track record比学校牌子重要。。

3 如果都是在亚洲区的，那么那个US hedge fund的发展空间比你现在的fund大多少？ 是否能让你有更多的自由，给你更大的book，更高的title？
如果两者差不多的，美国那个牌子又强很多，还是去美国那个混几年。。
不过听你上面讲，你现在fund的AUM 5billion，而且又是本地的，那在亚洲也算是非常大的了，在这个圈子里的牌子未必就差。。那就看发展空间了。。

csch

Totally depends on whether you want a higher education or start working at this time.

hissom

In terms of fund raising I once went to a high profile fundraising networking event and did hear people(even those very senior guys) mentioning alumni network to ice break and warm up. But that was about it. When you reach that level I imagine it is more important what your real ability is.
Plus if you are on investment side performance is the key you can always find some marketing guy as a partner and you concentrate on trading.
so how much a mba would help I am really not sure. If you are already determined to stay in IM and have strong network ability it is really not that necessary in short run. Just staying in nyc ( I assume you work in this city) will bring you tons of network chances.  
The reason I am asking what kinda strategy is strategy does matter how you choose your path. You do not have to disclose your fund's name but we can share some general advice with everyone in this forum.

Thanks everyone.

A Wharton MBA is a negative NPV choice to make in short term. My current package is not what a fresh Wharton graduate can imagine.

The only reason why I even bother to apply to Wharton is that I think the long term gain may outweigh the short term loss. Especially, my eventual goal is to pursue entrepreneurship, e.g., setting up my own fund. So what I really want to find out is whether a network Wharton brings me is good enough for this purpose. Or a US hedge fund name helps me more when I start to raise my own fund.

REgirl07 and hissom, really appreciate your adivce. I have sent out my msn to you guys pls add me to discuss.

I am from Nanjing University btw, and I can't disclose the hedge fund I currently work at. It is a USD 5 billion plus fund and I manage its long/short equity portfolio of abt USD 100 million.

Thanks.

-- by 会员 nspyhk (2010/3/31 10:57:29)

hissom

BTW, another thought, if you are going to work in nyc, why not try Columbia a yr later.
Get the degree and make the most of the two yrs of nyc experience. If you are aggressive and tough enough it is very possible that you can find some investor already at the end of the two yrs. I saw example like that.
My suggestion is stay in the center and make the most of the resource. A school won't give you that much at this point. Just get the brand name. The pedgree will stay with you for your whole life.

yyferboy

Thank you, Regirl07. Your advice is very helpful and it is what I have been thinking and debating about too.

Good traders dont' equal to successful founder of a new HF. Especially I don't have a US education and that makes it even harder to convince US LPs to invest with me. Investment is a monkey business and branding and selling capability is the ultimate key to success.

Morespring, Glad to meet you, I will send your my MSN and keep in touch

yyferboy, I was not trying to be arrogant and I am just an employee working for someone else. Nothing really awsome to be arrogant abt in the first place. I am just telling u a matter of fact that in my case Wharton is a negative NPV in short term. I don't think any Wharton MBA graduate joining a HF as junior will get paid USD 1 million a year.

-- by 会员 nspyhk (2010/3/31 12:59:48)

我也不相信你一个本科毕业4.5年的南大毕业生可以拿到投行junior MD的base+bonus的水平。香港也不可能。请行内人出来评评真假。

hissom

如果是trader成绩好的话也没什么不可能。

hissom

真正的big money都在hf里面，做得好跟捡钱似的，不过炮灰也一堆呵呵。

yyferboy

如果是trader成绩好的话也没什么不可能。

-- by 会员 hissom (2010/3/31 16:04:08)

问题他是investment analyst，又不是trader. 就算100个million的1%的管理费是1 mn, 不可能给他一个人吧。