close window 
Be ready for change, willing to take chances, and exercise caution about hedge funds, Brad Coleman, ’88, co-head of Citigroup Global Markets’ financial entrepreneurs group, advised students in a November 8 fireside chat with dean Edward Snyder at the Hyde Park Center.
“What you’ll discover about business is it’s definitely cyclical. Markets go up and down. Markets crater and go crazy. Bubbles are created and burst. The more nimble you are in your career, the more grounded you are, the more well-rounded you are, the more interesting your career will be because more opportunities will come your way,” Coleman said.
Coleman said he felt optimistic about the diversity of opportunities for students moving into investment banking and private equity, but said hedge funds now generate the kind of buzz now that industry mortgage trading generated when he graduated in 1988. “Wall Street is a place that will evolve. The herd mentality will not serve you well,” Coleman said. “The best investors I know are the people who look and say ‘OK, what are the most beaten down sectors? That’s where I’m going.’”
What worries him about the field is that there are some 6,000 hedge funds and a limited number of arbitrage strategies, he said. “There’s too much money chasing too few strategies.”
While Coleman didn’t intend to criticize hedge funds, he did caution students who pursue a job in the industry to consider the people, the institution, what they would learn, and what they would do afterwards. “Don’t do it just because everyone else is doing it,” he said.
—Jenn Q. Goddu