A Day in the Life of a Hedge Fund Analyst
Since some of our students target hedge funds either straight out of university or as an exit from IB, this should help you visualise what a typical day of a hedge fund analyst (1st or 2nd year) may look like:
⏲ 8 am – 10 am: Reach work, research global news, local markets, as well as sectors you cover to check any developments that could impact your current positions.
If no major events have happened impacting positions, as a junior analyst your goal is to identify 1-2 investment ideas for the week that you can pitch to your team. Select 2-3 firms for researching and identifying potential investment ideas as well as evaluating current positions (one long and one short). Review the valuation model for an existing portfolio firm that a new junior analyst created.
⏲ 10 am – 11 am: Meet with the senior analyst/ PM to discuss the valuations and rationale you provided on undervalued or overvalued companies. Discuss assumptions and key risk/ return metrics along with the target firm’s revenue growth, expenses, and CAPEX.
⏲ 11 am – noon: As a junior analyst, you may use this time to work on your research, fintetune models. Senior analysts mya shift focus to talk to companies that they’ve invested in. How’s the business doing? Are t
hey considering new product releases or a potential M&A as part of their expansion strategy? Is the company management in agreement with such decisions and how will this impact the earnings?
hey considering new product releases or a potential M&A as part of their expansion strategy? Is the company management in agreement with such decisions and how will this impact the earnings?
⏲ 12 pm – 1 pm: Lunch meeting with the PM and the Tech sector head to discuss the day’s updates. They are keen on shorting a ride-hailing company’s stocks to cut losses while you try to convince them that a long-term hold will rake in bigger benefits. 
⏲ 1 pm – 3 pm: Attend sell-side conference/shareholder meetings to network with CXOs of publicly-traded firms (that you’re interested to invest or already invested in). If these firms make any positive announcements, you can consider making bigger investments in them.
If there’s no event, continue to evaluate the potential investment in an auto ancillary company that supplies to the defense sector. Plan meetings with their customers and counterparties for due diligence to supplement existing research (investor presentations, 10-K and 10-Q reports) to assess if they’re undervalued.
⏲ 3:45 pm - 6 pm: Check market updates on Bloomberg to see if any events can impact existing positions (especially over 5%). Speak to traders for any major stock market updates. Get back to building the investment thesis you have been working on. Communicate with the sell-side analyst on any info about this target firm that the PM is keen to invest in. Continue with stress testing scenarios to assess if outcomes will change your recommendation.
A 12-hour day is fairly common unless any news hits your portfolio. That means longer management meetings to decide on selling or retaining positions based on the fund’s strategy.
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