Faculty, Research & Expertise

HEDGE FUNDS CAREER - SWISS FINANCE STUDENTS LEARN FINANCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ACQUIRE THE SKILLS RELEVANT TO A CAREER IN THIS SPACE

The hedge fund industry has gone dramatic transformation during the last decade. The early part of this century created a huge growth in the assets managed by the industry and in the number of funds managing them. 2008 saw a rapid pullback where funds suffered losses and redemptions; many went out of business. Swiss Finance Academy believes that the consolidation in the industry would continue as assets would move from less skilled fund managers to more capable hedge funds, on balance. Some Swiss Finance students are interested in exploring the hedge funds universe in order to understand how the industry fits into the overall capital markets and investments universe. Others wish to work for a hedge fund, which seek access to skilled talent. Some ambitious Swiss Finance students aspire to launch their own hedge funds at some point in their investments careers.Swiss Finance curriculum is geared towards understanding a wide range of strategies not only from a theoretical and quantitative perspective, but also from a real world risk management perspective. For example, it important to know not only how a carry trade could be structured in excel and executed on a trading platform, but also the risks it would pose if and when it faces a rapid unwind.

Hedge Funds as an Investments Strategy

This segment of the course focuses on institutional investment in non-traditional, alternative investment products, consisting primarily of hedge funds, but also private equity and intellectual property. Students learn about proprietary trading methods, technical and fundamental analysis of markets as well as securities. Students learn how and why the hedge fund investment universe has grown significantly over the past decade, but declined recently in the financial crisis, from redemptions as well as capital losses. The class learns strategies such as macro, risk arbitrage, fixed income arbitrage, managed futures, equity hedge, statistical trading and convertible arbitrage.

Summary

While it has become increasingly difficult to find an opportunity at a hedge fund in the current economic cycle, particularly as the number of hedge funds shrink and assets consolidate, the industry exhibits a strong appetite for talent, typically for professionals who can demonstrate a solid trading or risk management training. Those who can supplement their training with a track record at an investment bank have many opportunities. There are also suitable opportunities available at the junior entry levels. Students would need to understand the hedge fund business model, how many are akin to securitized trading desks, the strategies they employ, the types of employees they prefer (e.g. some prefer a more entrepreneurial mindset than investment banking analysts) and recent trends in this global industry.

About Swiss Finance School of Business

Swiss Finance is a leading private learning institution catering to undergraduate students, graduate students, and working professionals in North America (New York and Boston), Europe, the Middle East and Asia. We prepare our students to succeed in various fields of today's business world by combining sophisticated concepts with applied industry training. For years, Swiss Finance faculty have drawn on their professional experiences, their research, their travels worldwide, and their passion for teaching to educate some of the highest caliber individuals worldwide.