Diary of a Hedge Fund Manager: From the Top, to the Bottom, and Back Again

INTRODUCTION

My final day in the hedge fund business was Friday, November 2, 2007. I’d enjoyed nearly a nine-year run on Wall Street, first as a junior analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston before landing on the buyside, working for hedge fund pioneer Jon Dawson, and then eventually co-founding a hedge fund with my partner, Harry Schwefel. Our fund was later absorbed into multi-billion-dollar Magnetar Capital. My last-ever hedge fund job was running money as a Portfolio Manager and Managing Director at Carlyle-Blue Wave Partners.

At the time I worked at Carlyle-Blue Wave (February through November of 2007), the Carlyle Group—already well known around the world for its private equity prominence—was pushing into the hedge fund business. Its new hedge fund arm, Blue Wave, a joint venture with two ex-Deutsche Bank executives, made me Partner and gave me a seat on the fund’s Investment Committee, representing the Long/Short Equity side of the business.

On the morning of what would turn out to be my last day in the business, I ducked out of our Midtown office right before noon and walked down Fifth Avenue to buy a new pair of black loafers. The soles of the ones I had on weren ’t exactly worn out and might have even lasted me another six months, but with my son Jack due to be born in the coming week, I felt it was time to start the next chapter of my life.

So did my bosses at Carlyle-Blue Wave.

Later that afternoon I was told I was being let go. My days trading a “book” for a hedge ...