[nl]

I love this story on so many levels.

Firstly there is the irony of a "blue collar hedge fund manager"

There's the fact the lack of an IPO bump means Facebook equity holders are the people who made money out of it, instead of the investment banks buying at the opening and hoping to sell at the bump price.

Then there's the whole "HN thinks Facebook is worthless and has the satisfaction of seeing the stock drop on the opening day." thing. Now it turns out all the self-congratulation over people's "insightful analysis" was probably misplaced - Facebook may or may not be overvalued, but the stock price probably doesn't reflect the market consensus yet.

Finally, in an ironic twist Shakespeare would have been proud of it turns out that it was probably the NASDAQ's computer system that meant Facebook missed an IPO bump. Silicon Valley loves talking about how Wall St over-hyped IPOs during the dot-com bubble and blaming it for the lack of a significant IPO exit strategy since. Now it was a computer system that failed Silicon Valley's great hope of reigniting the IPO market.

[KirkWylie]

As someone who's worked in and with a lot of Hedge Funds, he's not a Hedge Fund Manager: he's a trader.

What that means in general is that while he's going to be very well paid w.r.t. the rest of society, he's not the guy actually doing the full hedge fund portfolio management, he's a guy executing trades on behalf of that portfolio manager.

The PM is the guy who makes the massive, massive payout, not the trader operating on his instructions.

[nl]

Yes, I do understand that, and I guess I misspoke when I said "manager" rather than "trader". It doesn't detract from the irony though.

(Fan of your blog, and following OpenGamma's progress, BTW)

[to3m]

This particular man presumably understands class as the English do - that in many cases, it's as much (or more) to do with your upbringing and background as it is to do with your current social status.

Perhaps "blue collar" isn't quite the term for this, though. I can't imagine there are many blue collar workers in a hedge fund. Maybe the cleaners...

[ticks]

I guess he's trying to say that he feels like he shouldn't be there, a pretender to the throne. Happens a lot when you are working class and join a department/division that attracts people from more affluent families.

[Duff]

I'd interpret this as someone with high income/low net worth.

Think someone from a random middle class background that got good grades an above average public college. Basically, if he fucks up, he's bankrupt.

The WASPy types with Harvard MBA's benefit from their social safety net.

[nextstep]

You should adapt this for the stage!

[wr1472]

A sequel to the Social Network?

[anamax]

> the investment banks buying at the opening and hoping to sell at the bump price.

The IBs also parcel out shares to favored clients so they can get the bump. Favored clients is shorthand for "folks who can get us more biz in the future", such as folks whose companies are likely to go public in the future....