Do You Believe In Ghost Shares?

The good news for hedge fund firms is that 2009 has been, so far, a significant improvement over 2008. Most hedge fund managers are up on the year. The bad news, however, is that many remain well below their high-water mark.

高水位标记确保基金经理不会获得不良表现。他或她必须在高水标记上方得到基金，以便得到补偿。没有管理费才能发出，支付高管，投资组合管理者和分析师，这些分析师产生了返回并不容易任务。在许多对冲基金上，金库是空的。

Every year, as bonus season draws near, I receive countless calls from hedge fund analysts and portfolio managers asking me what they are worth in salary. How do I compare to others at my experience level? How much of a bonus should I expect this year? I hear from numerous hedge funds’ COOs and CEOs asking me how much other funds are paying their people and what compensation formula or methods are they using. This year, the anxiety is starting even earlier than usual.

No standard exists in hedge fund compensation. Managers, typically, however, follow one of two overreaching methods when compensating investment team members who are not partners: the formula based incentive scheme, where staff are paid according to a previously agreed formula, or the discretionary incentive seem, where bonuses are paid out at the sole discretion of the senior or managing partners.

许多投资专业人士我喜欢t工作he formula model. It helps to know during the year roughly what to expect, rather than having it come as a complete surprise. One complaint among hedge fund employees is “why should I worry and wait until one day in January to get paid what my boss feels is appropriate, when I can go to a competitor who uses the formulaic method?” In recent years more firms have shifted to the formula model, but for many firms the discretionary approach still makes a lot of sense.

One of the most admirable hedge funds I know, due to stellar performance and enormous asset growth, since 2002 has nearly zero staff turn-over. Year in and year out, they seem to have a house full of happy people, all of whom are receiving discretionary bonuses. They simply take care of their people.

In either case, after the 2008 free fall, something had to be done for hedge fund managers that did not have the funds to pay employees. The problem is complicated further by funds that are doing well in 2009, but remain under water. The solution I am seeing more and more of these cash-strapped funds adopt is ghost shares.

幽灵份额就像股权选项一样。通常，鬼魂股票在发行后一年到两年。它基本上是一个i.o.u.根据他们的排名，我认为比大多数大多数人更有创造性的大量的对冲基金比2008年的大多数人奖励。他们的排名来自他们的绩效曲目记录，与公司的历史，以及经验和责任的程度。幽灵股份作为要求未来的利润从其高水位高于其高水标记。虽然它在去年的水下，但该客户在2009年已经超过了其高水位。

If a fund exceeds its high-water mark, and returns profit, by the time the ghost shares vest, everyone shares the wealth according to their assigned number of ghost shares. Although presumably they will earn less as they may be paying people back from previous years, which poses another challenge.

But, if the fund fails to perform, their ghost shares – will be worth nothing. Is it a gamble? Sure. But for those who believe in the fund they work for, or the fund they are considering moving too, can turn things around it is often a gamble worth taking. Moreover, hedge fund professionals have to work somewhere. And with so many funds fighting the same deluge, a deal like this can seem like an attractive option.

当然，有一个更具吸引力的革命股权，可以提供没有或没有管理费的资金：真正的股权。大多数投资专业人员都希望成为合作伙伴，或者跑自己的展示。他们没有在沃顿学习的沃顿举行所有的夜班。这些人是精英的精英，最好的最好。他们想拥有一块业务。

But partners are often hugely reluctant to give up an equity stake – after all, ownership is where the true money is made, and one day we may get back into an environment where a hedge fund can go public or be sold for a heady sum. So they tread cautiously.

For a managing partner, there is a balancing act between diluting partnership and watching talented investment professionals walk out the door if they feel they are not properly compensated with ownership.

So where does this leave us? Many professionals I talk to are hoping that ghost shares will be a temporary haunting. But for now, the question many hedge fund professionals will be asking themselves come January is – do you believe in ghosts?

John Pierson是10x合作伙伴的创始人是一家位于纽约的对冲基金招聘公司。有关更多信息，请访问公司网站www.10xcap.com.