- Common misconception that hedge funds are all risky ways to lose money. These guys do charge a lot - usually 2% of your total assets each year and 20% of the profits they create for you - but they're able to do beacuse they've been making people rich for a long time now.
- Hedge funds first introduced in the 1960s
- Designed to make money in both up and down markets and minimize volatility
- High-speed traders came in later and adopted the hedge fund name, but in reality they often do the opposite of what a hedge fund is supposed to do
- Investment industry has moved heavily toward computer science and programming
- You don't really need to know (or like) finance to write software or algorithms for hedge funds
- Opportunities: Hedge fund industry oversees nearly $3 trillion basically just from U.S. (this is the size of the entire U.K. economy, 5th largest in the world)
- $$$
- (pictures of hedge fund managers)
- (real ballin? JCHK picture)
- Junior devs avg $61k nationally, $67k in NYC (citations)
- Junior devs (general) working for a hedge fund avg $97k nationally and $157k in NY (citations)
- Junior devs working as a pricing quantitative developer avg $200k (citations)
- Senior PQDs with 5-10 years experience make $1mm+ (citations)
- Working for a fund directly as a trader
- Working for a fund directly as a software developer (G.S. & Slang)
- Working for a third party to develop software to sell to hedge funds
- Working for a consulting firm that specilizes in financial/trading software
- (based off job postings in industry with these keywords for required skills, quantcode.com)
- "C++": 696 jobs
- "Java": 291 jobs
- "C#": 228 jobs
- "VBA": 157 jobs
- C++ (most popular, older)
- C# (older)
- Java/Scala (functional java, younger)
- VBA/Excel
- q / kdb+
- R
- Python (younger)
- MATLAB (primary prototyping language, used for backtesting - what is prototyping?)
- OCaml (younger)
- Flex/AJAX for front end
- NOTE: programmers with mathematical backgrounds tend to find "functional" languages like F# and OCaml more useful
There are a lot of opportunities right now for developers who work with or for investment companies like hedge funds. Even if you don't know or like finance there are many positions in the industry that deal with back-end, front-end, and full-stack development. Working for a newer hedge fund, like any startup, can be risky.
However, perks of working for a hedge fund involve more money, opportunities for bonuses and equity, and often the same exciting, close-knit atomosphere of a tech startup. Also, the ability to work remotely is quite common for hedge fund developers and, even if you have to go into the office, many hedge funds are headquartered in small towns and cities across the U.S. (e.g. towns in Connecticut) so you don't have to consign yourself to living or working in a big city.