Hedge funds and the stock market - ask me anything til i get bored

[Scorpion Man]

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How hot are the girls you hire? Do you beef them on a regular basis?

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No beefing, variable hotness. Had a former stripper (although did not know it when we hired her). Fact is, crappy secretaries SUCK and a good ugly secretary is about 100x better than a bad pretty one.

[Scorpion Man]

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What products did you or your traders trade (CDS, CDO, Futures, FX, Converts, etc)? What strategies did you or your traders employ (L/S, Convert Arb, Risk Arb, etc)?

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For most of our history, we were global long/short equity. Truly global - half of our assets were outside us, and in places like Brazil, Tokyo, Istanbul.

In later years we added others...credit default swaps and some quants. We did very little with debt and no arb.

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were the quants dealing with the L/S portfolio or the CDS/etc expansion?

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No. In our case, the quants were very late to the game. It was failing of my firm that we took too long to get into alternative asset classes and my founder, in particular, was not quantitatively oriented. That said, he can live about 50 lifetimes without ever working again, so its no so bad.

[Thremp]

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How hot are the girls you hire? Do you beef them on a regular basis?

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No beefing, variable hotness. Had a former stripper (although did not know it when we hired her). Fact is, crappy secretaries SUCK and a good ugly secretary is about 100x better than a bad pretty one.

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Is this like the hot/batshit crazy direct correlation? Like a competence/hotness inverse correlation?

[Preem]

What do you think of the recent private equity activity in tech (NXP, Freescale, and earlier Seagate)?

[edtost]

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For most of our history, we were global long/short equity. Truly global - half of our assets were outside us, and in places like Brazil, Tokyo, Istanbul.

In later years we added others...credit default swaps and some quants. We did very little with debt and no arb.

[/ QUOTE ]

were the quants dealing with the L/S portfolio or the CDS/etc expansion?

[/ QUOTE ]

No. In our case, the quants were very late to the game. It was failing of my firm that we took too long to get into alternative asset classes and my founder, in particular, was not quantitatively oriented. That said, he can live about 50 lifetimes without ever working again, so its no so bad.

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so you didn't do arb and they didn't help on the L/S equity or CDS portfolios ... what did your quants actually do?

[Dazarath]

How would you suggest someone (me) who is not very knowledgeable about the field go about learning? Preferably, an answer more than just "read".

How did you become a member of 2+2?

If I wanted to look into getting an MBA (I'm a senior majoring in computer science), would you just say "too bad", or would there be some steps I could take to work my way towards that?

Thanks in advance for your time.

[BDaws]

I'm currently a 2nd year at UVA which is a solid school, but definitely doesn't carry the clout that the Ivy League carries. What steps should I take to give myself a better chance at landing a solid job out of college?

Also, this summer, I was late on trying to get a job. I know internships are much more important the summer before your senior year, but what should I do instead? An independent study of financial markets with an extensive reading list? Play poker full time? Work as a camp counselor? Are any of these good choices?

[MrBlue]

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What qualifies you to make this topic?

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Experience.

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Well apparently. Care to elaborate?

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A decade of hard core $ mgmt experience and a good track record. MBA, FWIW. Original employee of a large hedge fund, material role in hiring pretty much everyone who ultimately worked there.

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If you don't mind, could you elaborate on your role at your shop? Were you a portfolio manager? COO/CFO?

[MrBlue]

It sounds like you've been in the industry for a while. Were you able to take advantage of all the perks before the SEC came in and ruined all the fun? Soft dollared trips to Hawaii and strip clubs, hookers on the trading floor, etc.

[Mr. Now]

Scorp,

The OP here is asking a good question. I'm sure you are very qualified. To help focus the questions, please provide some bio info so we know your scope of expertise. I have questions myself about quant trading for you, if you can answer. Help us focus the questions your top areas of expertise.