New hedge funds may only employ a few people in the
beginning, but Ackles said that there are established funds in Manhattan with
more than 200 people.
"You grow and then you have a marketing department; you
have people that work directly with the investors; people concerned with the
brand identity of the firm; you have a compliance army; you have internal
counsel and external counsel; and obviously you've got almost a trading room
that you would see at a prop desk at a bank," he said.
Ackles believes that the Volcker Rule, which could more or
less lead to a ban on proprietary trading at major banks, could actually lead
to further job creation. "A prop
desk is essentially an in-house hedge fund," Ackles explained. "Those
firms, those talented people, have been getting out. They've been launching and
hanging out their own shingles. That will continue to create jobs in the hedge
fund industry because, as they move out, they have to get real estate, a staff,
technology, support -- that's going to increase the number of hedge funds and
it's going to increase the number of jobs in the hedge fund industry."
Further, Ackles said that the ecosystem extends beyond each
hedge fund. "It extends to the people who provide services," he said.
"So all the accountants and attorneys and technology providers and
marketing folks, and all the people you might hire externally to support your
business -- their jobs are depending on you at the hedge fund…."
No comments:
Post a Comment