Hedge Fund Management is Not a 9-5 Job: Interview With Oasis Management’s Seth Fischer

When many people think about going into hedge fund management, they expect to work nine to five. However, one of the world’s leading managers has found success working overnights.

In an interview with Hedge Fund Alpha, Seth Fischer of Oasis Management shared the story of how he got into asset management - and what he learned working the overnight shift for seven years.

Fischer is the founder and chief investment officer of Oasis Management, an international investment manager headquartered in Hong Kong with offices in Tokyo and the U.S. He started the firm in 2002 after spending seven years at Highbridge Capital Management, where he managed the firm’s Asian investment portfolio. Fischer advocates for corporate governance reforms across Asia, frequently speaking on investment and economic panels.

Before joining Highbridge, he served in the Israel Defense Forces and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Yeshiva University. Fischer also serves on the board of the Karen Leung Foundation, which he and Oasis Management co-founded in the wake of their colleague Karen Leung’s death from cervical cancer in 2012. The foundation runs the annual Sohn Hong Kong Conference, where Seth Fischer typically pitches a stock idea. The conference donates all proceeds from the event to the Karen Leung Foundation.

Background on Seth Fischer

Growing up in New York, Fischer has always had a natural entrepreneurial and commercial bent. He was always organizing his friends to work hard alongside him, shoveling walks, cleaning yards, and doing anything else to serve his neighborhood while earning some cash. And that’s not the only way he raised money.

“As a kid, if someone gave me a gift, I might sell it five minutes later,” Fischer explained. “So looking for interesting and creative commercial opportunities is part of my DNA, and we’ve continued to do it at Oasis, both professionally and for charity.”

What he loves about investing

Fischer loves investing because he feels it is incredibly interesting and provides opportunities to study and understand lots of different businesses.

“You get to understand the guts of how they work,” he added. “You get to try to figure out when is the right time to invest and what price to buy these companies at. You get to cheerlead them, help lead them, and help push them to different places to create value for everybody. The best way to be an engaged investor is to expand the pie for everybody. That's a large part of our business.”

Of course, Oasis Management also invests in convertible bonds and distressed securities, but still, Fischer enjoys investing because of the opportunities to study various situations and be involved in a wide range of different scenarios all the time, helping businesses grow.

How Fischer got into asset management

Despite his love for investing, Fischer didn’t always want to be an asset manager. When he returned from serving in the army, he went on the hunt for a job. In college, he worked in a freight forwarder’s office and then in the warehouse. Seeing all sorts of things for sale, Fischer then tried to trade infrastructure, assets and metals from Eastern Europe. He thought the entire process was “incredible.”