Day in the Life of a Hedge Fund Analyst

Few live to tell the tale.

"Was it like Billions?"
"Describe ur investment process?"
"What did u learn?"

I get these questions all the time, but for a while I was afraid of answering publicly. No more!

Hedge fund story time.
👇
🧵/

1/ ⏰ 6AM Pre-Market Review

Wake up thinking about ur overnight positions.
What happened during London/Asia trading?
Scan the major news on ur way to office.
🏢🚕🚶‍♀️

Think about how ur getting screwed by beta (general macro, FOMC, inflation, etc.) cuz ur net long (or net short).
2/ 7AM Portfolio Review

U'll typically have ~250 names in the portfolio "universe" (stocks w/ active positions & those on watchlist but already modeled).

Review each thesis vis-a-vis new market conditions. Anything changed?
Should u downside/upsize any?
New trade opportunities?
Here's a checklist of top items to check per company:

- Any earnings calls this week?
- Any product releases?
- Any new sell-side reports? Downgrades/Upgrades?
- Any M&A rumors in the space?
- Any management change announcements?
- Any guidance revisions?
- Any legal happenings?
3/ 8AM Plan out your daily/weekly agenda

Major types of events that'll populate ur calendar:
- Investor day at XYZ
- Q1-Q4 earnings call
- XYZ road show
- Dinner event w/ IR (investor relations) at XYZ
- Private buy-side bus trip (w/ mgmt @ XYZ) arranged by GS
- JPM conference
4/ 9AM Team meeting just before markets open

Discuss w/ ur PM:
- whether overnight news impacts/changes ur thesis on each open position
- prep work & questions u compiled for XYZ upcoming event later in the day
- pre-mortem on some new positions ur considering adding to the book
5/ 10AM Listen to XYZ earnings call

Every day a subset of the ~250 companies in ur universe will have earnings calls.

When start:
pre-market, during, or post-market

Structure:
- first CEO gives his spiel
- then CFO gives his spiel
- then sell-side analysts ask dumb questions
6/ 11AM - 3PM: Read/make/revise financial models

This is the crux of ur job.
So lemme describe what exactly this entails.

A "financial model" is just 3 accounting statements stacked on top of each other in Excel:
- income stmt (IS)
- cash flow stmt (CFS)
- balance sheet (BS)
Why & how to "link" the 3 statements:

The reason why analysts stack all 3 on top of each other is cuz all interwoven:

- net profit:
flows from bottom of IS to retained earnings in BS & first line of CFS
- working capital:
from CFS, is the diff btw current assets & liabilities
Where do you get financial models from?

Typically, u buy from sell-side & modify as necessary.
Historical statements are found in all 10K/Qs. Easy to verify.

But what u really want to modify are the projections of FUTURE metrics.
After all this is the fundamental analyst alpha.
7/ 4pm Coffee & gossip

Markets just closed. Your PM is doing some intense clean-up/post-mortem or squeezing in post-market adjustments.

You get coffee, run into other analyst, & complain/brag about headcount at other teams, who's allocations getting slashed, who's doubled, etc.
8/ 4:30pm Post-Mortem

Markets just closed, so u got some reflecting to do:

Any major gains?
Any major losses?
Why did the moves happen?
Did u anticipate them?
How can u better anticipate & respond going forward?

See 🧵 below on how to do a post-mortem:
https://t.co/G3jzYCb6Qf
9/ 7pm-9pm

[--- Insert Boring Mandatory Dinner Event ---]

U tell ur boss ur there for info gathering.
U tell urself ur there to hobnob in case book blows up tomorrow 'n u gotta jump ship to Millennium.
Ur really there to stuff ur face w/ schnapps & salmon heuer d'oeuvres.
10/ 9:30pm Asian markets open

I will not check markets.
I will not check markets.
I will n---

HOLY SHIT! BABA DOWN 9% ALREADY?!?!

WTF tere's like no news.
Damn retail stocks!

U whip out ur laptop & start planning how u'll respond tomorrow. More post-mortems in the queue...🤦‍♀️
11/ 12AM Existential Musings

Wonder if ur life would've turned out easier if u'd taken that Google software engineering internship instead of GS banking internship sophomore year in school.
JK.
Life is way more exciting now & u'll never regret it.

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Having made over 1000 boxes for vulnerable families in Cambridge via @RedHenCambridge (thanks to our customers 🙏🏽) My thoughts on the £30 box thing. Lots of factors at play here. 1/

If the pics in this @BootstrapCook thread are true and correct then the Govt/taxpayers & families in need are getting absolutely SHAFTED 👇🏽 2/


There are some mitigating circumstances. A £30 box won’t ever contain £30 (retail) worth of food - people aren’t factoring in
-the cost of the box
-paying someone to fill it
-rent & rates
-& most expensive the *transport/distribution*

3/

If you’re doing the above at scale. Delivering *across the UK* it’s not cheap BUT IMHO there should be at LEAST £20 worth of groceries in a £30 box. To get more value they need more fresh produce. Just carrots & apples is terrible. 4/

I’m gonna put my rep on the line here & say something about these big national catering companies whose names I’ve seen mentioned. They are an ASSHOLE to deal with & completely shaft small businesses like mine with their terms which is why I won’t deal with them. 5/
Ok here is the explanation. Grab a cup of coffee and read on. If you have not read/noticed this, you will see intraday options movement in a new light.


Say we have two options, one 50 delta ATM options and another 30 delta OTM option. Normally for a 100 point move, the ATM option will move 50 points and the OTM option will move 30 points. But in a high volatile environment, the OTM option will also move nearly 50 points

To understand why this happens, first understand why an ATM option is 50 delta. An ATM option has the probability of 50% of expiring as ITM. The price just has to close a rupee above the strike for the CE to be ITM and vice versa for PEs

Now think of a highly volatile day like today. If someone is asked where the BNF will close for the day or expiry, no one can answer. BNF can close freakin anywhere, That makes every option of an equal probability of being ITM. So all options have a 50% probability of being ITM

Hence, when a huge volatile move starts, all OTM options behave like ATM options. This phenomenon was first observed in the Black Monday crash of 1987 at Wall Street, which also gave rise to the volatility skew/smirk

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॥ॐ॥
अस्य श्री गायत्री ध्यान श्लोक:
(gAyatri dhyAna shlOka)
• This shloka to meditate personified form of वेदमाता गायत्री was given by Bhagwaan Brahma to Sage yAgnavalkya (याज्ञवल्क्य).

• 14th shloka of गायत्री कवचम् which is taken from वशिष्ठ संहिता, goes as follows..


• मुक्ता-विद्रुम-हेम-नील धवलच्छायैर्मुखस्त्रीक्षणै:।
muktA vidruma hEma nIla dhavalachhAyaiH mukhaistrlkShaNaiH.

• युक्तामिन्दुकला-निबद्धमुकुटां तत्वार्थवर्णात्मिकाम्॥
yuktAmindukalA nibaddha makutAm tatvArtha varNAtmikam.

• गायत्रीं वरदाभयाङ्कुश कशां शुभ्रं कपालं गदाम्।
gAyatrIm vardAbhayANkusha kashAm shubhram kapAlam gadAm.

• शंखं चक्रमथारविन्दयुगलं हस्तैर्वहन्ती भजै॥
shankham chakramathArvinda yugalam hastairvahantIm bhajE.

This shloka describes the form of वेदमाता गायत्री.

• It says, "She has five faces which shine with the colours of a Pearl 'मुक्ता', Coral 'विद्रुम', Gold 'हेम्', Sapphire 'नील्', & a Diamond 'धवलम्'.

• These five faces are symbolic of the five primordial elements called पञ्चमहाभूत:' which makes up the entire existence.

• These are the elements of SPACE, FIRE, WIND, EARTH & WATER.

• All these five faces shine with three eyes 'त्रिक्षणै:'.
One of the most successful stock trader with special focus on cash stocks and who has a very creative mind to look out for opportunities in dark times

Covering one of the most unique set ups: Extended moves & Reversal plays

Time for a 🧵 to learn the above from @iManasArora

What qualifies for an extended move?

30-40% move in just 5-6 days is one example of extended move

How Manas used this info to book


Post that the plight of the


Example 2: Booking profits when the stock is extended from 10WMA

10WMA =


Another hack to identify extended move in a stock:

Too many green days!

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