Quotes: Carrie Sun - Private Equity: A Memoir, 2024

• ‘other hedge fund titans and their flagships, like Ray Dalio's Pure Alpha II and Ken Griffin's Citadel.’ Pg 14

• ‘What's Barra? he asked. It was then I realized how wide the knowledge gap was between fundamentally and quantitatively driven finance: here was an investor whom many had called a phenom, who did not know one of the industry-leading providers of optimizers and risk models. This was also the moment I realized I wanted to work for Boone, a billionaire of (relatively) low ego.’ Pg 19

• “What's your weakness?”… "Intensity." Silence. "I tend to take everything seriously," I said, "and often to an extreme. Not everyone likes to be around that energy." Silence again. I smiled and kept calm. Then I added, "In any case, whatever I do, I give it my all. I aim for the best in the world." Pg 19

• ‘Later, I followed that up with an email to Gabe exploring quotes from the essay on how "prestige is just fossilized inspiration" and "you have to like what you do enough that the concept of 'spare time' seems mistaken." In my spare time I wrote, read, and planned. Seeing how the first two weren't exactly moneymakers, I thought it a smidge too perfect that I could get paid (well)’ Pg 21

• "Your biggest challenge will be not to intimidate others. The more people like you, the more you'll be able to get done." I assured him I would be quiet and absorb everything like a sponge.‘ Pg 23

• ‘The best investors are masters of psychology: they buy up your mental real estate before you realize it's for sale.’ Pg 30

• ‘Those were also the years before Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD), a rule the SEC instituted in 2000 to try to level the playing field by forcing companies issuing shares to the public to disclose material information to all investors, large and small, simultaneously. Special and early access was, in theory, gone after that.’ Pg 32

• ‘The industry had sold their investors on the twin promises of beating the market—what's known as generating alpha—and cushioning the fall during a downturn. On this, they delivered. The world took notice.’

• ‘In the late nineties, the funds' investor base began to change from individuals (who, on the whole, maintained their allocations in hedge funds) to institutions, led by David Swensen, head of Yale's endowment. Swensen pioneered the endowment model, turning a portfolio invested mostly in marketable securities like stocks and bonds-which convert easily into cash-into a portfolio invested mostly in alternatives like hedge funds, private equity, and real estate-assets that are more illiquid and higher fee in expectation of higher returns. He spun around $1 billion in 1985 into $10 billion by 2000.’

• ‘Then came the financial crisis. Hedge funds suffered in 2008 but not as much as the market, with the average fund down 18 percent compared to 38 percent for the S&P 500. Asset allocators lost confidence, redeeming $382 billion that year.’ Pg 33

• ‘Suppose you have a $10 billion fund and the typical two-and-twenty fee structure-that is, a 2 percent annual management fee plus a 20 percent annual performance fee. A rough calculation would say that managing the assets for a year with zero return would net you $200 million versus working night and day to try to produce a (pretty decent) return of 10 percent. Returns often get more difficult to generate the more AUM you have; when your AUM gets to a certain level, the incentives can change.’ Pg 34

• ‘Winning best-performing hedge fund in the world by stock picking was like winning Iron Chef by boiling chicken breasts: there were much fancier cuts, much more engineered and quantitative methods for investing, especially with the rise of machine learning. But Boone wanted to win by analyzing companies well;’ Pg 42

• ‘He explained his people philosophy, which he wanted me to emulate: always interact with others in such a way as to induce a "good feeling" in them. "The key for you," said Boone, "is to watch closely and learn from others. Don't step on anyone's toes. Don't act like you know everything. Defer to others." Pg 44

• ‘One of Boone's refrains was "How you spend your days is how you live your life." How you practiced was how you'd perform in the championship game.’ Pg 64

• ‘Jamie had previously spoken about the idea that everyone has a book about them that's already being written… he could talk to your bosses, colleagues, subordinates, friends, teachers, parents, and then be able to craft a fairly accurate story of you… "I tell people," Jamie said as he gestured with his finger, "that you actually have to behave in the way you want the book to be written.’ Pg 68

• ‘In November there were two stories of interest. The first was about how Carbon had sought special tax rulings for some of its international investments by using a hybrid financial instrument designed to be treated as debt in one country and equity in another, allowing it to reduce its tax liabilities. The second was about how Carbon had made a spate of trades via pseudonymous shell companies (like many other hedge funds), allowing it to avoid certain regulations.’ Pg 76