Asia Alpha Talent: May 24th

Post COVID-19 rise of Alternative hiring

by Adam Butterfield, Arion House

The year 2020 has been volatile and unpredictable to say the least, with the emergence of COVID-19, and its subsequent impact on equity markets catching all across the financial world by surprise. Some even estimated that the sheer magnitude of hedge fund deleveraging during the March lows, potentially surpassed those seen at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, with others going so far as to compare it to the Great Depression itself. However, despite this bleak economic outlook, many industry leaders are optimistic about the future and the opportunities this crisis will bring.

So, where will these opportunities arise? And, what skill sets will be in high demand?

If you’re currently looking for a new role, no matter the function, large banks may not be the best place to focus your efforts. Although all industries have experienced a significant slow down in hiring, the impact on large banks could be greater due to their cumbersome nature. This, coupled with many, including HSBC and Barclays, declaring major cost saving initiatives focused on middle and back office functions will create an unfavorable job market.

Instead, turn your attention to more nimble market participants, such as those in the High Frequency Trading and Hedge Funds spaces. Virtu Financial, Citadel, Two Sigma, DE Shaw and Jane Street, just to name a few, are all actively hiring and hold strong positions to take advantage of an evolving financial ecosystem. Electronic market makers have even been moving into the territory of banks and offering institutional client services, which is highlighted by Citadel’s hire of ex-Deutsche Bank Managing Director David Silber and the build out of his team to help win order flow.

However, even before COVID-19 hit the world buy-side hiring was on the rise, particularly in Hong Kong and China, as firms look to set up or expand their operations in order to take advantage of China’s progressive relaxation of foreign investment law. Buy-side compliance hiring has also exploded in recent years, which has been a result of regulators shifting their scrutiny to alternative industries, the expanding scope of China and other business operations and the trend for larger funds to bring roles in-house that were previously outsourced. Additionally, the SEC readdressed their consideration on hedge fund and private equity access to retail investors in 2019. Although any revisions would likely be years off, the potential implications of such an opportunity on business scope and the hiring needs would be very significant.

These industries are also best suited to the digitization of the economy, of which COVID-19 has been a significant catalyst. Many countries are already reporting the virus to be a major driver in the adoption of FinTech and RegTech solutions, as well as remote or flexible working arrangements. While the effects of technology on the hiring needs of firms may differ, there’s no doubt that as the world continues to employ tech-savvy solutions, professionals with the technical expertise to oversee these systems are going to be widely sought after. For example, there are approximately 3 million available cyber-security positions across the globe and considering regulators believe cyber threats arguably pose the greatest threat to financial institutions going forward, one could safely assume there will be an increasing focus and demand in cyber-security going forward.

Few, if any experts can accurately predict the long term effects of COVID-19, the shape of ensuing economic recovery and the subsequent nature of the job market. Many were unprepared for such a reality and are now attempting to minimize any and all losses incurred, while also re-assessing evolving economic environments and sociological expectations. It is hard to say what the future holds, but what is certain is that COVID-19 has acted as a digital catalyst and firms and professionals who embrace digitization and support such a future will be in high demand.

Asia Alpha Talent:

Senior Management

Portfolio Management, Hong Kong/Singapore, English

Portfolio manager role with a world renowned Multi Strategy Hedge Fund. Successful candidate would expect to be running his own market neutral/Low net strategy in the Equities sector supported by an experienced team of Analyst and technical staff. Role to be based either in their Singapore Entity or Hong Kong Entity. Interested candidate should have a proven track record of generating alpha on a consistent basis managing a sizable amount of AUM of between 50 million to 100 million.

Contact: [email protected]

Tech Lead, Hong Kong, English

Top Tier hedge fund looking for an equity derivatives developer to be based in Hong Kong. Must have prior experience building out risk platforms, working directly with investment teams, Java/C# programming skills and excellent English proficiency required.

Contact: [email protected]

Trader, Singapore, English

Execution Trading role with a world renowned Global Macro Hedge Fund. Successful candidate would expect to be working with the rest of the existing traders in Singapore to be executing and monitoring trades on behalf of the respective portfolio managers in the Singapore office. Interested candidate should have at least a minimum 3 to 5 years experience in the related field preferably in a Buy-side environment.

Contact: [email protected]

Associate Roles

Credit Analyst, Hong Kong, Mandarin/Bahasa OR Japanese

Credit Analyst role at leading global hedge fund in Fixed Income who use their balance sheet to facilitate primary issuance, secondary trading and investments focused on corporate bonds, loans, trade claims and special situations. Candidate must have a background in credit investing or credit analysis and they will have around 3-8 years experience. Special situations or public credit experience are favored.  An Asian language is required as well as regional Asian market experience. Mandarin, Bahasa, Korean and Japanese speakers are of particular interest.

Contact: [email protected]

Equity Analyst, Hong Kong, English/Mandarin

Equity Syndicate Analyst for a start up multi-strat fund with several hundred million dollars AUM employed across various strategies. They seek to hire an entry level analyst from a sell side EQUITY SYNDICATE desk to assist them in their Equity/Block Trades/IPO/events investing. Candidates with 18 months experience + will be considered.

Contact: [email protected]

Investment Analyst, Hong Kong/Singapore, English

Looking for experienced hedge fund or buy-side analyst for immediate multiple opening based in HK and Singapore. Any sector / market coverage considered. Between 3-10 years. 

Contact: [email protected]

Investor Relations, Hong Kong, English

Investor Relations role for an Asian hedge fund launched in 2019 which has been very successful in raising AUM and in its performance across strategies. They seek to hire an experienced IR professional to help them to further grow their assets and market profile. The ideal candidate will come from one of the following backgrounds; Bulge Bracket Prime Brokerage  Capital Introductions  Capital Consulting IR/Marketing in another hedge fund.

Contact: [email protected]

Japan Investor Relations, Hong Kong & Japan, English/Japanese

Top tier hedge fund looking for Japanese Investor Relations candidates to be based in HK and Japan. Will support Asia Head of BD, with marketing, and IR responsibilities. Fluency in Japanese and English required. 

Contact: [email protected]

Legal Counsel, Singapore, English/Mandarin

Fast growing crypto fund/fintech backed by a large conglomerate looking for legal counsel to be based in Singapore. You will be providing strategic legal support for the group, working closely with senior management teams. 1-5 years of experience, mandarin language highly preferred.

Contact: [email protected]

Quant Researcher, Hong Kong/Singapore, English (Bonus: Mandarin)

Quant Researcher role at a globally established hedge fund growing their footprint in Asia. Responsible for researching and implementing trading ideas across asset classes, data related processing and monitoring of behavior and performance of strategies. Requirements include a quantitative area of study, strong coding proficiency in at least one major programming language and ability to work well in a high-pressure environment.

Contact: [email protected]

Senior Analyst, Hong Kong, English/Mandarin

Relative Value Arbitrage Role. Large Asian Multi strat seeks experienced event-driven analyst who has solid experience in understanding fundamental drivers of value. They will be doing deep dive analysis into Holdcos and their stubs to understand NAV discounts and opportunities offered by these discrepancies. This role will closely interact with the trading desk and other internal PMs. 

Contact: [email protected]

Analyst Roles

Data Scientist, Hong Kong/Singapore, English (Bonus: Mandarin)

Data Scientist role at a globally established hedge fund growing their footprint in Asia. Responsible for exploring complex data sets using statistical techniques to solve real life problems faced in the markets. Requirements include PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics or other quantitative areas of study; programming proficiency in Python, SQL and at least one of KDB, C++, C# or Java; experience applying statistical tests to large data sets.

Contact: [email protected]

Equity Analyst, Hong Kong, English/Japanese OR Korean

Japanese speaking fundamental analyst for a leading Asian hedge fund with several billion USD under management. Fundamental driven investment approach towards public equity markets. The investment team mainly focuses on evaluating companies in the technology, consumer, healthcare and financials sectors, leveraging in-house proprietary research capabilities with a structured investment process. Native Korean and/ or Japanese language capabilities, including reading and writing will be considered.

Contact: [email protected]

Execution Trader, Hong Kong, English (Bonus: Mandarin)

Execution trader for locally based hedge fund with coverage of US markets. Roles will execute equities/ derivatives/ fixed income transactions/FX for Japan, Korea, HK, and US. Candidate will be required to provide timely market updates to portfolio manager, manage stock loan book, minimize stock loan expenses and ensure borrow quality, conduct trading performances with brokers and counter-parties on a regular basis and maintain good broker relationship. Candidate must have 2-3 years experience and a quantitative background. Chinese reading literacy required and English fluency required; Mandarin is preferred but not required.

Contact: [email protected]

Service Provider Roles

Network, Infrastructure Engineer, Hong Kong, English/Mandarin

Network Infrastructure Engineer with a tech-driven, global investment platform for instituitional investors. This role would require strong organizational, technical, and communication skills. With the ideal candidate possessing substantial background in providing network infrastructure project deliveries and supports to the company which will support the fast-paced and critical trading system environment.

Contact: [email protected]

Sales Analyst, Hong Kong, English/Mandarin

Regional Sales Analysis (APAC focus) with a tech-driven, global investment platform for institutional investors. The successful candidate will help drive performance through identification of obstacles and opportunities. As a Sales Analyst, one will work closely with the sales and trading teams across the APAC region to help develop initiatives to optimize the company's product and execution. The sales analytics function aims to deliver ad-hoc analysis for internal and external stakeholders. The role will also be responsible for building and maintaining a robust reporting foundation to allow key stakeholders to access day to day data with ease as well as providing clients with accurate data on relevant trends and exceptions.

Contact: [email protected]

Matthew Jarvis