All language subtitles for How I Became a Hedge Fund Analyst - Gunduz (1080p, h264)

I landed a six -figure hedge fund
analyst role straight out of university

without going to a target school.

And in this video, I'm giving you my
entire blueprint to do the same. You'll

my CV, the emails I sent, the resources
I used.

And finally, a bonus tip that literally
nobody ever talks about when it comes to

breaking into buy side firms.

My name is Barak. I've worked at two
different hedge funds as an investment

analyst here in London. And now I'm
currently working as a quant trader at a

high frequency trading firm. And for
full transparency, my starting salary

£106 ,000.

That's base plus bonus. And this is
exactly how I did it.

During A levels, I unfortunately missed
the grades that I was hoping to get to

secure the universities that I wanted to
go into. So unfortunately, I had to go

through a clearing. I was lucky enough
to still land the Russell Group

University, but it was no means the
university that I wanted to go into. I

to study aerospace engineering at
Queen's University, Belfast. And the

reason I picked engineering was because
I thought it pays a lot at the time.

Anyway, first year rolls around and I
quickly realized that engineering isn't

for me. So I look around to see what
kind of careers are out there that I

be interested in. And I finally land on
finance.

And at the time, there was no one really
at Queen's talking about Insight

events, but I found online resources
from LSE students, et cetera, talking

how important it is to secure Insight
Week at large investment banks and so

So I ended up applying to a bunch of
these Insight Weeks, and as you can

probably guess if you're watching this
video, I landed in nothing, which

basically meant the summer of my first
year, I spent doing nothing. I

LinkedIn and just basically networked.
Now second year rolls around and this

time I wanted to be a bit more strategic
so my main concern was that my CV had

no real target education so I wanted to
focus on that for my second year of

summer but what I did is I focused on
research internships at universities

hoping that it could basically cover up
the fact that I went to a non -target

for my undergraduate.

So I searched online loads of research
internships and I finally found one

offered by University of Oxford. It was
a program called Unique Plus.

It was basically a program that was
aimed at undergraduate students.

to do research at University of Oxford
if they get accepted.

And if they do well and they want to
continue, they can start a PhD or a

postgraduate, like a master's degree at
the university.

So I apply and end up getting accepted.

So I spend the second summer of my
undergraduate studies at Oxford doing

research. And now I felt like I had a
stronger CD going into third year. Third

year rolls around.

I apply to large institutional
investment banks again.

And you can probably guess.

it's straight rejection. There is not
even an interview. So at that point in

third year, I realized that no matter
how good the CV is, it's just not

through to these investment banks. So
what I tried to do is get creative in

I could get my CV into the hands of
people that would actually see it. So

decided to do is focus on firms that I'm
very much interested in, but are small

enough that there's no HR department. So
my CV might actually get through. So I

decided to apply for hedge funds.

as the size of hedge funds fluctuates
quite a bit you have smaller ones and

larger ones the larger ones i kind of
expected the same outcome like a

but i thought the smaller ones might
actually give me a chance but i didn't

how to find them and what i did was
quite creative and in my opinion a it

really smart move or i guess really
stupid that it became kind of smart is i

decided to find them just like how you'd
find like a restaurant basically using

google maps so what i did is i went onto
google maps opened up an area of london

which i knew had a lot of these
institutions obviously in your case if

like new york it might be different but
in london there's an area called mayfair

there's a lot of these firms and so i
literally typed in hedge funds and most

them come up as like asset managers
capital partners etc at the time i

know what those were anyway I Google and
I realized those are hedge funds. And

so now I'm like, okay, this is great. I
take a list of all their names and go

into their LinkedIn. Then I look at how
many employees there are and if there's

anyone that works in HR.

And then I focused on the ones which
don't have HR departments.

Then I would go on their website and
search for either investor relations or

contact. And disclaimer, probably don't
email investor relations, but I was

pretty desperate at the time. So I was
just trying to get my CV seen.

any which way and then i would basically
send a cold email and attach my cv and

ask if they would be open to give me an
internship all of the resources i'm

going to include in the next section but
let me finish the story so then i send

a bunch of these emails at the start of
my third year and there was no real

responses at the time couple rejections
but that's when i knew that at least i

was getting seen because i was getting
rejected by real people rather than an

automated email so as my third year was
coming towards an end i decided that i

didn't want to leave academia and still
continue to improve my cv so i applied

for a master's degree at imperial
college london to study computer science

accepted and then i also don't want to
waste the summer between starting my

master's and finishing my undergraduate.

So then I decided to still do research.

I get accepted at UCL to do research
within their computer science

So summer rolls around and during that
period, whilst I'm doing research, I'm

still cold emailing. And finally, one
place gives me an interview.

which then turns into an offer.

And then I decide to quit my internship
at UCL to start that position during

that summer. And that's how I landed my
first hedge fund internship.

And then finally, after I finished
Imperial, I do the same tactic again and

my first graduate position.

Let's get to the resources.

Somewhere on the screen, I'm going to
put the exact CV and email I used, which

landed me my first position.

The CV is pretty basic. So let's tackle
that first.

What you really want to do when it comes
to applying to anywhere is to keep it

as simple as possible.

there's not much to really learn from
this it's pretty much all the same

you'll find from most videos keep it
thought concise one page and no clutter

just straight to the point look
professional as possible it's pretty

simple there is not too much that goes
into creating a good CV so the email is

the main part and there is something
that I didn't include at the time

don't know but I'm going to tell you
exactly what you should add to

improve this email. So let's get
started. It needs to be very short. It

be three sentences just like you see
mine. The first sentence, basically, who

you are.

secondly why you're emailing them and
then thirdly now this is key in the

sentence you're going to hint to the
second attachment which i don't have

i'm going to explain your first
attachment should obviously be your cv

second attachment is going to be a
financial model plus an equity research

report and the reason you're going to do
that because you are going to prove to

them straight from the beginning that
you can do the internship the reason

funds don't hire straight graduates
coming out of university and instead

expect you to do two years at an
investment bank before coming to the buy

and the reason for that is because then
you are trained into how to financial

model and how the financial ecosystem
works in general but the thing is

of these skills can be self -taught and
i'm going to show you exactly the type

of model and equity research report that
a hedge fund would want you to do at

the job so then you can pretty much skip
the two years and just listen to what

i'm about to explain this is most
applicable for long short equity hedge

obviously it would differ with hedge
funds like global macro etc but you can

focus on the subsection what you want to
build is a free statement financial

model What you want to do is go on
Google and type in how to build a

statement model.

There will be lots of tutorials. You can
search YouTube, ChatGPT, etc.

Then you need to pick a stock that you
want to go long or short. It doesn't

matter. What you want to do is go onto
that firm's website, go into investor

relations. Then you'd find all their
financial reporting, quarter by quarter,

annual, everything.

What you want to do is download all
those reports.

then open up the tutorial and follow
that tutorial to build a free statement

financial model using those financial
statements you're basically going to

this free statement model using the free
statement their income statement the

cash flow statement and the balance
sheet what it basically looks like is

combining all of these statements into a
single model to give you an insight

into the financial health of that
company you will basically be doing

data so that's all the stuff that you
that the company reports then you'll be

making a forecast into the future
obviously you're going to learn how to

as i described using google finally
after you build this model what you want

do is write a single page equity thesis
and the way you're going to do this is

as follows let's say you picked um i
don't know pandora so you're going to

pandora's news you can use chat gpt you
can use other resources online to

basically find recent news about pandora
so let's say pandora changed its

interior design of its shop or they did
something else or they collaborated with

a different company etc etc then what
you want to do is support those news and

research around that company so this
will be qualitative research and then

you're going to support the financial
model let's say the financial model

a very healthy outlook into the future
when it comes to their finances then you

support it using the news and other
reasons for why it creates an

point within the industry that it
operates in so then you're going to

that stock to industry so if it's
pandora you'd compare it to its industry

it's like if it's like a real estate
company you'd obviously you'd compare it

that if it's like an agricultural
company you'd compare it to that etc etc

you're going to basically write a single
page thesis supporting the financial

statement then giving your opinion on
that stock whether to go long or short

finally concluding it with why you
should long the stock and then a time

so you want to say due to these news etc
and its competitive advantage there is

a catalyst coming up within the industry
or within the company itself so use the

word like there is a catalyst this is a
common term within hedge funds and then

you're basically going to say in the
next three months i expect it to be and

then give a range so if it's a long so
what is its current price of that stock

then you'd say in three months my
prediction is between this range which

basically means it's currently
undervalued etc this will be pretty much

what you do on the job and it proves to
them that you pretty much are way ahead

of anyone that's even close to you in
second or third year this is going to

create the most incredible advantage you
can ever imagine when it comes to cold

emailing the thing is these firms are
not looking to not hire you they just

no reason to hire you and that's what
you need to pick they do not care who

are they care about themselves just like
anything else and you are selling

yourself to them because you can provide
value you can do the job at a very

young age which means they can train you
exactly how they need you to be trained

for that strategy and that portfolio
manager and now finally the bonus tip

university students that are trying to
break into buy side firms like hedge

funds focus on the idea of working at
the investment banking division of an

investment bank or sales and trading etc

I'm going to tell you why that is the
wrong approach to try and break in. And

there is a much, much better approach
outside of cold email. Firstly, the

trading of a hedge fund, they're just
execution traders. They're not the

who generate P &L. What you want to
become at a hedge fund is a portfolio

manager. That is the person who
generates P &L. And the first step to

that is an investment analyst.

Now, the skill set, as I just kind of
described, is equity research.

So when it comes to applying to larger
institutions, that is great. If you can

go and work at Goldman Sachs, J .P.
Morgan, etc., that's going to look

on your CV.

However, the investment banking division
isn't actually the most applicable

skill set when it comes to breaking into
a hedge fund. It's actually the equity

research division.

So when you become an investment analyst
at a hedge fund, you will be working

directly with equity research analysts
and the sell -side firms.

like investment banks so you'll be using
their reports etc you'll be digesting

and synthesizing all that information
and they'll be basically doing the exact

same job that you're doing so if you go
to a non -target university or even if

you go to a target university i would
actually recommend you to try and break

into equity research division of an
investment bank because there you will

two things Firstly, the skill set of
actually equity modeling is the exact

that you'll be doing at a hedge fund and
most analysts actually come from this

route. And secondly, you will be
networking directly with the investment

at hedge funds. This is a absolute no
-brainer. So if you can break into that

department, which you usually get less
applications compared to the investment

bank and sales and trading, you are
actually in a more prime position to

into a hedge fund. Anyway, that's
everything from me for today. If you

questions about anything that I spoke
about, let me know in the comments. Take

care.