Introduction

I recently got a job to work at a hedge fund in Wall Street. Wall Street, and especially the hedge fund industry, is a very competitive and elitist workplace. As my boss puts it, “everybody fuckin’ bleeds crimson”, referring to the majority of Harvard grads (extensive to other Ivy League colleges).

Essentially, a hedge fund is a managed portfolio that derives its money to invest from wealthy organizations and individuals, who are willing to hand over their money to be managed by more skilled investment specialists. The hedge fund manager allocates the investors’ money to different teams following different investment strategies. Each team has a portfolio manager (PM), an analyst, a trader and – sometimes - a summer analyst. As for me, I am that last person.

The reason why I accepted this job was not the money as many would expect (which is certainly good, with the promise of being obscenely vast in a not so far future), but because of the competitiveness. In these last few weeks, I have been working with and competed against some of the brightest minds in finance, as they all cater around that big grid often referred to as “The Big Apple”.

This blog will reflect on my insights about Manhattan’s lifestyle and -  more particularly, but less profoundly - the hedge fund industry.