Cape Town Hedge funds anyone?

I am looking to move in to the asset management from my current position(not in investment mgt) and have spent the last few weeks researching the industry and obviously the global macro events that are happening as we speak. I would really appreciate the opportunity to chat with someone who is working in the capacity of a hedge fund manager or analyst to have an informal chat with me regarding strategies and preparation and the general hedge fund outlook in Cape Town. P.S. I have the required skill set, knowledge and relevant experience (quant modeling, SQL, etc)

What are you doing now and why do you think that you could add anything to a hedge fund? (quant modeling, SQL, etc. is not the required skill set, btw)

I have been working at a retail bank for the past 1 year in cape town before which i worked in NY for 3 yrs as a cash flow modeler for structured products (cdos, clos and the likes). I have been doing a lot of business case problems at the retail bank, client profitability analysis, how to increase fee income, reduce bad debt, capital budgeting, etc in other words a lot of business case studies type of problem solving. I have a very short learning curve and strong popensity to grasp macro relationships like interest rate, inflation, currencies, etc. Given the tremendous volatility in world markets and subsequent opportunities that exist (in the hedge fund space) I want to be able to utilize my understanding and reasoning ability to be able to better understand and exploit such opportunties. If quant modeling, SQL, etc is not the required skill set then what is? I am meeting a Hedge fund manager in a few days to have a chat and create a strategy to approach hedge funds for interview(s) and most of my research has been focussed on equity market neutral hedge funds as most funds that I have researched fall in that criteria. I am very confident of my ability to pick up things, research and make insightful conclusions, however its easier to say these things but difficult to put on the CV to illustrate so it would help if you are able to direct. I am guessing at the end of the day the idea is to identify stocks, trade them within a band to make a relatively low risk profit on a realtively big sized portfolio.

Why did you go from “cash flow modeler” to working at a retail bank? You’re not a teller now are you?

iteracom Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Why did you go from “cash flow modeler” to working > at a retail bank? You’re not a teller now are you? I like counting real money than making phoney models and garbage valuations.

nomad_SA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > iteracom Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Why did you go from “cash flow modeler” to > working > > at a retail bank? You’re not a teller now are > you? > > I like counting real money than making phoney > models and garbage valuations. So you’re a teller?

CFA is not for tellers my friend…

I started studyin for level 1 as a teller in a small bank…as long as you know you want to go (i.e. wealth management, asset management), I say CFA is relevant to your career goals further down the line. The knowledge you can gain from CFA texts (obviously not getting the knowledge from experience) can really help you in the interviewing process.

I answered in the rhetoric - some of you didnt get it - but I guess in the US even a tellers job these days is hard to come, so I can understand your obsession with tellers. I work for a growing retail bank in middle mgt The purpose and outcome of this post have gone in two opposite directions - either way no one seems to be interested in answering my inital question, which was this: “Any hedge fund analyst(s) hedge fund manasger(s) in cape town that would be willing to chat with me to help tailor the right strategy before I start calling hedge funds to invite myself for an interview”. I am meeting a fund manager over the weekend who is willing to answer that question, I will stick to text book questions on this forum - lesson learned.

youre a teller nomad

Cape town in south africa?

Nomad is right, Im obsessed with tellers…I need help! Is there a support group for this??

no, Cape town is in Turkey

hm… might be tough. i don’t think many AFers are located there.

oh ya, cape town Turkey. Lovely place. was there last year for spring break. try the veal.