The CAIA Charter program is the only designation, that delves deep into the nitty-gritties of alternative investments. It is the only organized body of knowledge that gives a well-researched and systematic knowledge about Hedge Funds (from due diligence to trading strategies) and Real Assets (valuation and risk management).
I have worked with some of the top hedge funds throughout my career. It was difficult to make sense of the thought process behind hedge fund trading styles, understanding the terminology they used, and to hold intelligent conversations with the hedge fund traders in the initial stages of my career. The CAIA Charter brought clarity to these difficulties.
I was recommended to pursue the CAIA designation by a hedge fund client, with whom I developed a good relationship during my work early in my career. This is one of the best decisions that I took for my career. I still work closely with hedge funds and the CAIA designation has given me a strong footing and is the foundation of my career.
Studying for the CAIA program was a tough phase as I balanced work and family life. However, the knowledge I gained, has proven invaluable over the years because this is the only program that elaborately deals with the types of hedge funds and does a quantitative evaluation of their typical trading strategies both in listed and OTC markets.
The best part is that ability to keep up with educational resources. The CAIA Association publications such as the Quarterly Mark & Chronicles of an Allocator have immensely helped me to keep myself updated on the ever-changing landscape of alternative investments.
My advice to students, early-career, and mid-career professionals is to invest in upskilling oneself, to commit to continuously expand their knowledge, to extensively network with industry experts. I am always happy to support them in their endeavours, by guiding them on the career opportunities they should target, the kind of profile enrichments they must do, and providing a good reference wherever possible.
I’d recommend the CAIA designation to those who aspire to build a permanent career in alternative investments. We are amid an expansionary phase in alternative investments industry in India, with a lot of alternative investment funds (AIFs) taking off over the past 5 years.
About Manan Vaishnav, CAIA
Manan has two decades of experience on the trading desks in the capital markets divisions of top investment banks such as Deutsche Bank, CLSA, and Goldman Sachs. He began his career as an equity research analyst and graduated to sales trading role focused on equities & listed derivatives for the India market. He has closely worked with large institutional investors such as Hedge Funds, Long Only Funds and Mutual Funds. His areas of expertise are trade execution, relationship building, client engagement & bespoke analysis using Bloomberg/MS Excel.
In his current role, Manan is the Co-Head of Societe Generale Securities India, responsible for driving the overall business by guiding the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) on their India onshore market access strategy. He has expanded the firm’s footprint in India’s capital markets. Apart from this, he has the oversight of the trading, operations, finance, treasury, and tech functions of the company.
Manan passed the CAIA Charter program in 2013.