Basic Information About Hedge Fund Manager

Hedge funds are available in different sizes; it may be from two employees to more than 500 employees. Therefore, it is bit tough to generalize or standardize the customs of hedge funds. There are number of small hedge funds that are run similar to small businesses. Therefore, it is the owner or here the hedge fund manager who determines the culture of the firm.

The hedge fund managers are known to be a bit more intense compared to their traditional counterparts i.e. mutual fund money managers, because they put a lot at stake with the success of their funds. Consequently, they take more part in the day-to-day processes of the firm. Not only the manager’s performance provides him/her with livelihood but it also defines his/ her net worth. This facilitates in a high level of involvement and interaction with most of the staff. But the interaction is inversely proportional to the growth of the hedge fund.

The work culture of a hedge fund widely differs from the work culture at an investment bank or a traditional mutual fund. These operations are known to generally exist as a part of larger organizations, backed by departments designed to alleviate the workload of the investment bankers or traders at a mutual fund. Human resource and marketing departments are presently assisting in the recruitment of new employees and marketing of the funds. Therefore it alleviates a large amount of pressure from the management at investment banks and mutual funds.

Most hedge funds are unlike these structured organizations, as they do not possess large human resource or marketing departments backing the management of the hedge fund therefore the burden falls on the management. A hedge fund manager often has a very busy work schedule full of all these responsibilities which further implies that the employees are expected to help in number of working areas like assisting with interviews and recruitment of new employees.

A hedge fund’s culture is likely to be determined by the hedge fund manager's own personality and beliefs, therefore the culture of one hedge fund varies tremendously from another. The culture of the firm is also affected by a fund's strategy. For example, PhD's are employed in a statistical arbitrage fund who are less outgoing and enjoy crunching numbers in a room, while the atmosphere at global macro fund would be outgoing. Here the employees will be watching the markets from a trading floor and openly sharing ideas.

However, to select a hedge fund manager an art as well as a science. A fantastic past track record is not necessarily an indication of an incredible future performance and vice versa. While it may be a very wise decision to compare their performance against a “benchmark”, but always keep in mind that the variation between funds within an index and the index itself vary enormously:

Therefore, it is important to consider all the important aspects before selecting hedge fund manager.