I got a job

User avatar
jack
Thermionic Monk Status
Posts: 5493
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:58 pm
Location: ɐılɐɹʇsnɐ oʇ ƃuıʌoɯ ƃuıɹǝpısuoɔ
Contact:

#61 Re: I got a job

Post by jack »

"hedge fund" is just a name for a small investment company - it's become a pejorative term, almost insulting, because of the anti-social behaviour of just a very few of the 1000s out there.

I've worked for a couple - basically, they take investors' money and try to get the best return they can within set parameters, e.g. only certain market sectors (oil&gas, industrial, general), only certain types of instruments (long-only, bonds,FX etc.) and regions (EMEA, APAC, etc.). Each hedge fund may actually be made up of several funds, each with its own parameters - investors chose which fund to put their money into - normally you are investing in the management team of that fund - the individuals that make the investment decisions for the assets under management. There are also "funds of funds" whereby a fund invests in other funds (no circular investments!).

Fundamentally nothing wrong with them. Some got a bad name for seeming to exploit unfortunate circumstances, e.g. short-selling during the 2009/10 crisis etc. but they are regulated like all financial services companies - if people have issues with what funds get up to, they should blame the regulators. Most in these companies are not fund managers, i.e. they don't make investment decisions - they are ordinary folk - accountants, IT, business analysts, project management, client relationship, HR - just like any other company.

One I previously worked for, the main guy gave 50% of his income to charity and had done so since he started work as a junior in the City many years before. One year, that 50% was nearly £20 million - he never told anyone - only those in the business knew. I have absolutely no problem with that. Almost everyone I've worked with in the hedge fund world has been a decent, ordinary, Joe with the same morals as everyone else. They are no different.

This lot are backed by an individual with a huge social drive - very discrete, very private, but driven by philanthropy. He makes no fuss, just is a good guy.
Last edited by jack on Sun Jul 17, 2016 8:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt
User avatar
Mike H
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 20157
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2008 5:38 pm
Location: The Fens
Contact:

#62 Re: I got a job

Post by Mike H »

jack wrote:I can now I've got the contract.

I'm going to be Director of IT/CTO of a multi-billion dollar hedge fund based in Dubai.

Interesting company - they are a charitable fund, raising about $100M/pa for their projects - currently nearly 1500 projects in Africa directly running the health & education for 6 million children, and indirectly benefiting 100 million others people.

They are also the major funders of research into neglected tropical diseases
<snip>
I start there in September.
Mucho respek .. :notworthy:
 
"No matter how fast light travels it finds that the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
User avatar
Ray P
No idea why I do this anymore
Posts: 6294
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 5:18 pm
Location: Somerset

#63 Re: I got a job

Post by Ray P »

It sounds like an interesting challenge Nick, but it's important to have fun at work too - I hope it works out for you as positively as it sounds.
Sorry, I couldn't resist!
User avatar
jack
Thermionic Monk Status
Posts: 5493
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:58 pm
Location: ɐılɐɹʇsnɐ oʇ ƃuıʌoɯ ƃuıɹǝpısuoɔ
Contact:

#64 Re: I got a job

Post by jack »

Going OK at the moment. Spent last weekend driving the length of Mussandam, offroad, through its mountains. 160km of almost deserted mountain tracks - gave the new car a workout. Then diving in the Straits of Hormuz.
IMG-20161016-WA0004-1024x576.jpeg
IMG-20161016-WA0002-1024x576.jpeg
IMG-20161016-WA0006-480x853.jpeg
Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt
User avatar
Greg
Social outcast
Posts: 3198
Joined: Wed May 23, 2007 11:14 am
Location: Bristol, UK

#65 Re: I got a job

Post by Greg »

Are those graves in the middle pic?
User avatar
jack
Thermionic Monk Status
Posts: 5493
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:58 pm
Location: ɐılɐɹʇsnɐ oʇ ƃuıʌoɯ ƃuıɹǝpısuoɔ
Contact:

#66 Re: I got a job

Post by jack »

Greg wrote:Are those graves in the middle pic?
Indeed. Pre-islamic, some of them.

The whole route us pretty desolate, isolated and rarely travelled, so don't know where all those people came from...
Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt
User avatar
andrew Ivimey
Social Sevices have been notified
Posts: 8307
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 8:33 am
Location: Bedford

#67 Re: I got a job

Post by andrew Ivimey »

It's a hard life!
Philosophers have only interpreted the world - the point, however, is to change it. No it isn't ... maybe we should leave it alone for a while.
User avatar
shane
Social outcast
Posts: 3403
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:09 pm
Location: Kept in a cool dry place.

#68 Re: I got a job

Post by shane »

I hope Audis have good air filters!
The world looks so different after learning science. For example, trees are made of air, primarily. When they are burned, they go back to air, and in their flaming heat is released the flaming heat of the Sun which was bound in to convert air into tree.
User avatar
andrew Ivimey
Social Sevices have been notified
Posts: 8307
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 8:33 am
Location: Bedford

#69 Re: I got a job

Post by andrew Ivimey »

Kraft Durch technik ( did I spell it rite?)
Philosophers have only interpreted the world - the point, however, is to change it. No it isn't ... maybe we should leave it alone for a while.
User avatar
pre65
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 21373
Joined: Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:13 pm
Location: North Essex/Suffolk border.

#70 Re: I got a job

Post by pre65 »

andrew Ivimey wrote:Kraft Durch technik ( did I spell it rite?)

Audi ist die Hunde Hoden? :lol:
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

G-Popz THE easy listening connoisseur. (Philip)
User avatar
Mike H
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 20157
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2008 5:38 pm
Location: The Fens
Contact:

#71 Re: I got a job

Post by Mike H »

Excellent!
 
"No matter how fast light travels it finds that the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
User avatar
jack
Thermionic Monk Status
Posts: 5493
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:58 pm
Location: ɐılɐɹʇsnɐ oʇ ƃuıʌoɯ ƃuıɹǝpısuoɔ
Contact:

#72 Re: I got a job

Post by jack »

Found out this week that we're the third largest funder in the world of projects aimed at eliminating NTDs (after USAID and the UK's DFID).

Hoping to work on a project in northern Ethiopia next spring....

Had the car valeted. Rather less disgusting now... Also changed the number plate as it turned out the previous one was "tainted"!
Attachments
IMG_20161022_100929-1280x960.jpg
Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt
User avatar
Mike H
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 20157
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2008 5:38 pm
Location: The Fens
Contact:

#73 Re: I got a job

Post by Mike H »

Please elaborate.

Tainted? NTD?


Image
 
"No matter how fast light travels it finds that the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
User avatar
jack
Thermionic Monk Status
Posts: 5493
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:58 pm
Location: ɐılɐɹʇsnɐ oʇ ƃuıʌoɯ ƃuıɹǝpısuoɔ
Contact:

#74 Re: I got a job

Post by jack »

NTD = Neglected Tropical Diseases

Tainted is a tricky one.

The old numberplate on the car was problematic. The story is long and painful, but the essence was that we got arrested by the UAE border police when returning from Mussandam - the car was seized...

It turned out that back in 2006, a car with the same numberplate was used in criminal activity and there was a UAE-wide stop order on the car... 2006 is obviously several years before this car was made... No matter... it's 36C, we're in the middle of nowhere and the car is being confiscated... There is a complete sense of humour failure wrt criminal behaviour here...

To cut a very long story short, after being escorted in convoy to a military compound, we found someone helpful who realised there was obviously an almighty balls up and eventually realised that the original numberplate had been cancelled in 2006 but that the RTA (Road Transport Authority) had mistakenly reissued the plate without cancelling the stop order.

The previous owner of the car bought it new from VAG with a supposedly new numberplate, but they'd never left Dubai with this car (it was used by the wife for school runs etc.) so they'd never crossed a border and had this grief.

We were told to cut our holiday short, return to Dubai immediately, go straight to the RTA and police station and to have the numberplate changed...

I went from shock to anger to resigned to relief in the space of just a few hours... Pragmatic - put it all down to experience...

All hopefully OK now went to Abu Dhabi yesterday (Al Ain) with no problems... Saw 1,000s of camels and goats.

Too many, just too many...
Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt
User avatar
Paul Barker
Social Sevices have been notified
Posts: 8870
Joined: Mon May 21, 2007 9:42 pm

#75 Re: I got a job

Post by Paul Barker »

I thought youd gone there to work? Stop all this larking about.
"Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe." – Albert Einstein
Post Reply