How important is it that your children go to an elite university which will equip them for jobs at top financial services and accounting firms? For some parents, it’s so important that they’re willing to spend tens of thousands, even millions of dollars to make it happen.
The recipient of all this parental angst money is Steven Ma, an ex-hedge fund analyst who runs a coaching company. Ma uses his expertise in writing algorithms to calculate the likelihood that teenage mediocrities can – with his help – get into big name universities. Bloomberg reports that Ma’s company, ThinkTank Learning, is assisting failed students at British boarding schools to get into prestigious universities and that some of his ex-clients are now working at the likes of Goldman Sachs and Deloitte. Ma’s fees can range from £12k ($20k) to £670k ($1.1m), with payment correlated to the prestige of the university his charges get into. Compared to the sorry state of hedge fund pay, Ma is doing very well for himself. Who said getting into elite universities was meritocratic?
Separately, an ex-UBS and Goldman Sachs banker has pinpointed why you don’t want to work for a global macro hedge fund any more. Neil Azous says assets under management have become concentrated in a few enormous global macro funds which, “fetishize loss avoidance over all other factors in trade selection and risk management.” The, “cult of loss avoidance is becoming counterproductive,” Azous adds.- Nowadays, no one has any strong convictions and all positions are heavily hedged. This wasn’t how it used to be. George Soros didn’t have a hedge when he bet against the pound, says Azous: Soros truly believed in his strategy. Read the full rant here.
Meanwhile:
European securitization jobs are about to make a comeback. It’s all thanks to Mario Draghi. (Financial Times)
Now that it’s owned by Stifel Financial, KBW is expanding its equity research team. It just hired George Karamanos, a banking analyst from Redburn. (Financial News)
20 people will be losing their jobs in London as DMC Partners, a private equity fund set up by Goldman bankers to invest in Russia and Eastern Europe, is being closed down. (Financial Times)
Credit Suisse is merging its private banking operations in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa with its private banking operations in Western Europe. Someone has already lost their job. (Bloomberg)
What will really happen to your pay at a start-up. (Facebook)
Brian Chapman, 55, a management consultant at KPMG, was sacked from his £104k job after wrongfully claiming £45k in expenses. “Admin is not my strong suit,” he explained. (Court News)
After 110 days in prison, Jerome Kerviel has been released to live a ‘completely normal life’ – except that he has an ankle tag and has to be at home between 8.30pm and 7am on weekdays. (Telegraph)
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