20-Year Prospect
You make people money. You aren't going anywhere.
Okay, so we're exaggerating – you sometimes make people money. Critics point out that hedge funds aren't great places to invest nowadays, given that the S&P 500 has spent the last five years kicking hedge fund returns to the curb.
You, as a hedge fund manager, say otherwise. (Of course.) You point to Soros Fund Management, which brought in returns of twenty-two percent in 2013 and added a cool $4 billion to the legendary George Soros' personal fortune. And then there's David Tepper, who beat the stock market with net returns of forty-two percent on his biggest hedge fund in 2013.
As long as investors look at the really, really incredible hedge fund managers and dream of dollar signs, you can count on having a job. If you pull a Raj Rajaratnam and do some light insider trading, however, you can kiss this gig goodbye and say hello to the federal pen.