As you’ve been told a thousand times, “practice makes perfect,” and this is no different for hedge fund interviews.  The more investment ideas you see, the better.

At the heart of all hedge fund interviews is the case study: pitching long and short positions.   Hedge funds are looking for candidates that can really dig into a company and understand what is going on: how they make money, management’s motivations, company objectives, etc.

An important person once told me Hedge Fund managers are looking for candidates who “know a lot about very little.”  So when   choosing your investment ideas for interviews, I would recommend understanding 1 long and 1 short like the back of your hand rather than pitching 5 longs and 5 shorts.  Funds want to see the work you’ve put in and let’s face it, there’s no way you have the time to dig into real-time 10 investment ideas.

If you are having trouble building a thesis and understanding how good long and short investment ideas are developed, then I would suggest the Street-of-Walls Hedge Funds Interview Guide.  We break down multiple case study examples and also teach you everything you need to know about the hedge fund interview process.  If you are looking for a deeper dive check out the case studies, we have top of-the-line material on both the long and short side in multiple industries.

The main point I want you to come away with is to spend as much time as possible on your investment ideas preparing for interviews.  This will show the hedge funds you are interviewing with you are truly passionate about investing and you understand what it takes to truly get convicted on an idea.