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Hedge Fund Compensation Strong in 2017, But “Winter” Could Come In 2018

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Mark Melin
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Total hedge fund compensation is set to rise in 2017, according to a Greenwich Associates and compensation consultants Johnson Associates. But the structure of that increased pay and who gets it.

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Attribution: john mcsporran, Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Hedge fund compensation: Young quants in demand

“It’s also a good time to be young,” Greenwich Associates Associate Director, Relationship Manager William Llamas noted in the 2017 Asset Management Compensation report. It is also good to have a technical focus when working in a hedge fund.

Compensation for junior professionals, particularly those with a technical bent, has never been stronger.

“The boom in quantitative products and continued strong demand from hedge funds has created a buyers’ market for experienced programmers and data scientists,” the report, titled “Conditions Turn Favorable, But Winter May Be Coming,” stated. “In both areas, the fact that asset managers are being forced to compete for talent against companies across financial services, technology, and virtually all other industries is putting upward pressure on compensation.”

While younger professionals are doing better relative to previous years, the lion’s share of compensation continues to go to the experienced asset manager.

Hedge fund compensation: Equity traders are still the big winners

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Mark Melin is an alternative investment practitioner whose specialty is recognizing the impact of beta market environment on a technical trading strategy. A portfolio and industry consultant, wrote or edited three books including High Performance Managed Futures (Wiley 2010) and The Chicago Board of Trade’s Handbook of Futures and Options (McGraw-Hill 2008) and taught a course at Northwestern University's executive education program.