What does a hedge fund manager do?
A hedge fund manager manages an investment pool, popularly called a hedge fund. This entails managing liquid assets that have been contributed by a limited number of investors who have met a certain net worth investment. They oversee this fund and make investment decisions for this fund, including running its daily affairs. Another part of their duty is to monitors stock markets and choose which assets to buy. They may also have to make money by using several investment techniques such as selling or leveraging.
Hedge fund manager responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real hedge fund manager resumes:
- Manage derivative credit risk for transactions with mutual and pension funds.
- Manage a portfolio of equities and options within the technology and energy sectors.
- Manage short term interest rate risk management utilizing basis swaps to modify portfolio duration.
- Perform month-end closings including calculations of final NAV, performance and partner allocations.
- Research all sensitivity factors that may have an economic effect on the fund's NAV.
- Develop financial and risk models, negotiate margin and collateral contracts (cash / securities), insurance and hedging options.
- Provide forensic reconciliations per regulatory demands.
- Evaluate and approve derivative exposure for non-routine deals.
- Implement automate portfolio holdings reconciliations to phase out time-consuming manual reconciliations.
- Reconcile expense ledgers, and ensure proper calculation of overhead expenses.
- Perform all funding of positions through securities lending and repurchase agreement activities.
- Develop and optimize a systematic long/short trading strategy, using equities and options.
- Develop persistent classes, including association, inheritance, polymorphism, composition and the Java collections framework.
- Prepare financial highlights for multiple companies to assure their performance fee calculation is being allocate accurately between restrict and unrestrict investors.
- Develop persistent classes, including association, inheritance, polymorphism, composition and the Java collections framework.
Hedge fund manager skills and personality traits
We calculated that 21% of Hedge Fund Managers are proficient in Hedge Funds, Derivative, and Private Equity. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Initiative, and Analytical skills.
We break down the percentage of Hedge Fund Managers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Hedge Funds, 21%
Managed hedge fund that invested in publicly traded and privately held financial institutions.
- Derivative, 16%
Developed and back-tested models for analyzing statistically-advantaged derivative strategies.
- Private Equity, 15%
Prepared subscription documents, and reviewed prospectuses for various hedge fund, and private equity fund investments.
- Equities, 9%
Developed and optimized a systematic long/short trading strategy, using equities and options.
- Swaps, 8%
Managed short term interest rate risk management utilizing basis swaps to modify portfolio duration.
- Mutual Funds, 8%
Ensured all transactions related to individual mutual funds were processed correctly and validated by secondary sources.
Common skills that a hedge fund manager uses to do their job include "hedge funds," "derivative," and "private equity." You can find details on the most important hedge fund manager responsibilities below.
Customer-service skills. The most essential soft skill for a hedge fund manager to carry out their responsibilities is customer-service skills. This skill is important for the role because "securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents must be persuasive and make clients feel comfortable with the agent’s recommendations." Additionally, a hedge fund manager resume shows how their duties depend on customer-service skills: "lowered production costs and enhanced net asset value deliverables to customer base by eliminating procedural inefficiencies and redundant processes. "
Initiative. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling hedge fund manager duties is initiative. The role rewards competence in this skill because "securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents must create their own client base by making “cold” sales calls to people to whom they have not been referred and to people not expecting the call." According to a hedge fund manager resume, here's how hedge fund managers can utilize initiative in their job responsibilities: "handle all managerial administrative duties for operations group including performance reviews, interviewing/hiring, and career advancement initiatives. "
Analytical skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of hedge fund managers is analytical skills. This skill is critical to many everyday hedge fund manager duties, as "to judge the profitability of potential deals, securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents must have strong analytical skills." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "monitor and analyze financial statements of prospective and current investments. "
Detail oriented. hedge fund manager responsibilities often require "detail oriented." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "investment bankers must pay close attention to the details of initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions because small changes can have large consequences." This resume example shows what hedge fund managers do with detail oriented on a typical day: "created pension fund initiative's fiscal budget and performed detailed company financial analysis: reported findings to board of directors. "
Math skills. A commonly-found skill in hedge fund manager job descriptions, "math skills" is essential to what hedge fund managers do. Hedge fund manager responsibilities rely on this skill because "securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents need to be familiar with mathematical tools, including investment formulas." You can also see how hedge fund manager duties rely on math skills in this resume example: "applied numerous quantitative models to value companies, including dcf, wacc, fcff. "
The three companies that hire the most hedge fund managers are:
- Kforce16 hedge fund managers jobs
- SS&C Technologies14 hedge fund managers jobs
- Advent Software
9 hedge fund managers jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable hedge fund manager resume templates
Build a professional hedge fund manager resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your hedge fund manager resume.
Compare different hedge fund managers
Hedge fund manager vs. Fund accountant
A fund accountant provides accounting for an investment portfolio. The investments needed include commodities, securities, and/or real estate in an investment fund like a hedge fund or mutual fund. The role of fund accountants includes activity capturing and recording. Fund accountants prepare accurate and timely values, distributions, yields, and fund accounting output for review. They manage activities associated with fund accounting and domestic equity transactions. Also, they work alongside supervisors when it comes to budget development.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a hedge fund manager are more likely to require skills like "private equity," "swaps," "real estate," and "fund clients." On the other hand, a job as a fund accountant requires skills like "calculation," "accruals," "journal entries," and "excellent interpersonal." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Fund accountants really shine in the finance industry with an average salary of $80,811. Comparatively, hedge fund managers tend to make the most money in the insurance industry with an average salary of $129,751.fund accountants tend to reach lower levels of education than hedge fund managers. In fact, fund accountants are 5.6% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.8% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Hedge fund manager vs. Investments manager
The job of investment managers or fund managers is to help clients grow their money and achieve their financial and personal goals in life. Investment managers have a variety of responsibilities that often include handling all activities associated with managing client portfolios, monitoring performance measurement and transaction settlement, and determining the best strategy for investments. Also, you will be responsible for providing advice on investments and handling investments and investor decisions with discretion. As an investment manager, you are also expected to offer recommendations about investments.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real hedge fund manager resumes. While hedge fund manager responsibilities can utilize skills like "swaps," "fund clients," "macro," and "sql," investments managers use skills like "due diligence," "investor relations," "asset management," and "investment management."
Investments managers may earn a lower salary than hedge fund managers, but investments managers earn the most pay in the finance industry with an average salary of $126,046. On the other hand, hedge fund managers receive higher pay in the insurance industry, where they earn an average salary of $129,751.In general, investments managers achieve higher levels of education than hedge fund managers. They're 5.7% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.8% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Hedge fund manager vs. Mutual fund manager
A mutual fund manager implements a company's investing strategy and manages its portfolio trading activities. The responsibilities of this position include picking which assets will be purchased, managing analysts, conducting research on investment opportunities, and overseeing mutual funds or pensions. Any person interested in this position needs significant management experience, knowledge of financial markets, and a finance-related professional certification.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from hedge fund manager resumes include skills like "hedge funds," "private equity," "swaps," and "fund clients," whereas a mutual fund manager is more likely to list skills in "financial reports," "portfolio," "payroll," and "oversight. "
Mutual fund managers make a very good living in the finance industry with an average annual salary of $105,774. On the other hand, hedge fund managers are paid the highest salary in the insurance industry, with average annual pay of $129,751.Most mutual fund managers achieve a similar degree level compared to hedge fund managers. For example, they're 2.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.7% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Hedge fund manager vs. Investment fund manager
Even though a few skill sets overlap between hedge fund managers and investment fund managers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a hedge fund manager might have more use for skills like "private equity," "swaps," "fund clients," and "macro." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of investment fund managers require skills like "investment management," "investment fund," "business development," and "anti-money laundering. "
The average resume of investment fund managers showed that they earn higher levels of education compared to hedge fund managers. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 5.2% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.6%.Types of hedge fund manager
Updated January 8, 2025
