Steve Cohen On Hedge Funds: I'm Blown Away By The Lack Of Available Talent

Steven Cohen, the billionaire investor and hedge fund manager, has somewhat discouraging words for finance professionals looking to find a high paying job at a hedge fund. Cohen, speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Monday said that he is "blown away by the lack of talent" of qualified individuals. He added that that is "not easy to find great people." "We whittle down the funnel to maybe 2 to 4 percent of the candidates we're interested in,"

quoted Cohen as saying. "Talent is really thin." Cohen also said that the hedge fund space has become "crowded" as many hedge fund managers are either employing old strategies or working under the assumption that new recruits to the firm could "magically" create profitable investments. "This industry has been around in a real way for 25, 30 years and excess profits get competed away in one way or another," he also said. "More people are going to enter the business and drive it down. It's starting to happen now and will probably continue to happen. That's a normal industry cycle." Cohen also offered a glimpse into his own hiring practices. At his $11 billion Point72 hedge fund, external hires account for 20 percent of his firm and he prefers to groom analysts and money managers internally.