Although social media was quick to catch on with consumers and consumer industries – particularly entertainment – the financial services industry has been comparatively slow to implement social media. There are lots of reasons for this – the main one being the legal minefield that could be opened up by the use of social media by companies and organisations in the heavily-regulated finance industry, and also a natural reluctance to let employees waste time on social media when they are supposed to be working.
This reluctance to embrace the possibilities of social media – and there are many, including marketing, fundraising, networking, and recruitment to name just a few – has been particularly acute in the hedge fund industry. For years, this industry has thrived on its reputation for exclusivity and privacy, and so any move into the public sphere via social media was widely shunned.
Hedge fund industry wakes up to possibilities
However, as social media has evolved, it has become increasingly useful to people and organisations within both the hedge fund industry and the finance industry at large. Now every trader has a Twitter/social media feed alongside the usual financial news feeds, and companies and individuals in the industry are much more likely to use social media to broaden and engage with their professional and business networks. In fact, a recent study by third party hedge fund marketing firm Agecroft Partners has shown that an estimated 90% of hedge funds with assets over $100m are using social media.
As you might expect in an industry geared towards sophisticated investors and businesses, it’s the enterprise-oriented social network LinkedIn that sees the most use by far within the industry, with Twitter a distant second. We covered this topic in detail earlier this year in an article entitled ‘Social Media Now Used by 90% of Hedge Funds‘.
About the groups
One of the main uses of LinkedIn by hedge funds is to engage in groups, where individuals, companies, and organisations can communicate with each other by posting relevant content and engaging in wide-ranging discussions on the topics covered by the group. This also makes the members of the group more visible to others, helping to join the dots between disparate networks and making it easier to find and get in touch with the right people within the industry.
Some groups, such as Richard Wilson’s Hedge Fund Group, are more general, covering a wide variety of different topics with members from all across the industry, while others such as David Cohen’s Hedge Fund Lawyers have a specific remit to a certain aspect of the industry, bringing together specific skills and qualifications under a single umbrella.
Here, we have collected the top 50 groups on LinkedIn related to the hedge fund industry, with links to the groups (click the group title), the name of the person(s) that administer the group, how many members they have, the most active members, and the market that they are primarily geared towards.
Hedge Fund Group (HFG)
Responsible: Richard C. Wilson
No. of members: 122.848
Most active members: David Lewis, Alan Meaney, Samantha Sanderson
Geography: US
Ivy Exec
Responsible: Greg McKale, Alex Baranpuria
No. of members: 37.596
Geography: US
Hedge Fund Professionals Worldwide Network
Responsible: Nothmar Noriel
No. of members: 18.474
Most active members: Chris Scarlett, Lance Smith
Geography: US
Hedge Fund Group / Alternatives Investements, Funds of Funds, CTA Funds
Responsible: Sanjay Dalal
No. of members: 11.331
Most active members: HedgeThink, Alex Dvorkin
Geography: US
Hedge Fund Risk Management
Responsible: Aleksey Matiychenko
No. of members: 10.261
Most active members: Chris Scarlett, Renae Griffin, Michael Thomsett
Geography: US
Hedge Fund Capital Introduction – Powered by IvyExec.com
Responsible: James Semien
No. of members: 9190
Most active members: Brian Dawson, François Nembrini
Geography: US
Hedge Fund Network
Responsible: Benjamin Deschaine
No. of members: 7.836
Most active members: Lucian Lauerman, Patrick Rooney
Geography: US
Hedge Fund Managers
Responsible: I. P.
No. of members: 6.065
Most active members: Brian Dawson, Timothy J. Maxwell
Geography: US
Hedge Fund Systems
Responsible: Brian Collins
No. of members: 5.327
Most active members: Dmitry B. , Megan H.
Geography: US
Hedge Fund Technology
Responsible: Jamie Peters
No. of members: 4.015
Most active members: Alex Bray
Geography: US
Hedge Fund Mandates – PM and Analyst Roles
Responsible: Jonathan Buffa
No. of members: 5.343
Most active members:
Geography: US
Hedge Fund Administration & Prime Brokerage Group
Responsible: Theodore O’Brien
No. of members: 5.266
Most active members: Adriana Tassini, Shane M
Geography: US
Connecticut Hedge Fund Association
Responsible: Bruce McGuire, JD
No. of members: 3.316
Most active members: Brian Dawson
Geography: US
Hedge Fund Investors Group
Responsible: Aleksey Matiychenko
No. of members: 2.432
Most active members: Patrick Rooney
Geography: US
Shanghai Hedge Fund Association
Responsible: Clark Song
No. of members: 3.197
Geography: China
Hedge Fund Marketing & Sales Group
Responsible: Keith Pagan
No. of members: 2108
Most active members: David Castaneda
Geography: US
China Hedge Fund
Responsible: John Liu
No. of members: 1.986
Most active members: Neria Konrad
Geography: China
HedgeCO Hedge Fund Discussion Group
Responsible: Aaron Wormus
No. of members: 1.684
Most active members: Stephen Terrell, Anthony Tuths
Geography: US
Emerging Manager Hedge Fund Group
Responsible: Emerging Manager
No. of members: 2.374
Most active members: Ryan Ortega, Matthias Knab, Tim Walters
Geography: US
Private Equity, Hedge Fund & Venture Capital Real Estate Funding
Responsible: Rod Fermin
No. of members: 2.525
Geography: US
Hedge Fund Jobs
Responsible: David Kochanek
No. of members: 1.344
Most active members:
Geography: US
Starting a Hedge Fund or Managed Account
Responsible: Jonathan Paul
No. of members: 1.518
Most active members: Michael Bleys, Tomas Berggren, Peter Kristensen
Geography: South Africa
Hedge Fund Third Party Marketing Firms
Responsible: Avi Benamu
No. of members: 1.455
Most active members: Silviu Crivilaru
Geography: US
Hedge Fund Lawyers
Responsible: David Cohen
No. of members: 1890
Geography: US
I am a writer based in London, specialising in finance, trading, investment, and forex. Aside from the articles and content I write for IntelligentHQ, I also write for euroinvestor.com, and I have also written educational trading and investment guides for various websites including tradingquarter.com. Before specialising in finance, I worked as a writer for various digital marketing firms, specialising in online SEO-friendly content. I grew up in Aberdeen, Scotland, and I have an MA in English Literature from the University of Glasgow and I am a lead musician in a band. You can find me on twitter @pmilne100.
