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A Trader’s Train to Wall Street, Connecticut
This article from NYTimes documents the arrival of towns across Connecticut as emerging financial centers, specially among hedge funds. If you plan to find work at hedge funds after graduation, this is something to keep in mind.
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: August 4, 2006
Thousands of young financial workers stream into Grand Central Terminal every weekday morning.
But many are not on their way to offices on Wall Street or in Midtown. Instead, they are crowded into trains for Greenwich, Conn., which has emerged as the home of the ballooning hedge fund industry.
The center of power in finance has shifted in recent years, and in one sense that shift is geographical. Some of the most powerful traders in the market can be found miles away from Wall Street, in Greenwich, Stamford, and Westport, Conn.
"If you look up and down the train line in Connecticut you will see all the hedge funds concentrated right along the line," said Thomas Torelli, a corporate real estate agent in Greenwich.
Those funds are there because their founders and top managers live nearby. But thousands of their employees do not and as result do what to the rest of Wall Street is a reverse commute.
The trains leaving Grand Central between 7 and 8:30 a.m. are packed. Most seats are taken and conversation is sparse. Unlike Wall Street commuters, many are not wearing suits. Yet like the Wall Street crowd, some are working furiously on their BlackBerrys and laptops.
A little less than an hour later, when the train rolls into Greenwich, workers stream out of the train and walk to their nearby offices.
Greenwich is quiet, peaceful and clean,'' said a young hedge fund employee on the train who lives in Manhattan. "But I am 24 and single — I couldn't imagine living in Greenwich."
He spoke on the condition that he and his firm not be named because he was not authorized by the hedge fund to speak to reporters. Many other commuters declined to comment for the same reason.
Hedge funds are notoriously secretive organizations. They will not disclose who their employees or investors are, much less their strategies. Now, apparently, how their employees commute is off limits, as well.
Still, it is clear that one of the most important factors for the thousands of hedge funds located in Connecticut is to be within walking distance of the train station, Mr. Torelli said.
Hedge funds started to grow like weeds around here and drive the real estate market from the mid-1990's till now," he said.
Metro-North Railroad estimates that the number of commuters from Manhattan to Greenwich increased 150 percent as of last fall from 10 years ago, and 170 percent to Stamford.
The president of the Greenwich Chamber of Commerce, Mary Ann Morrison, said she also began to notice the number of commuters from Manhattan starting to grow about five years ago.
These hedge funds, the staff they need are young ones who still have stamina and still want to be part of the city, so they do the reverse commute and get off here in Greenwich,'' she said. "If they live in Midtown it's no different than commuting from the Upper East Side to Wall Street."
The increased popularity of Greenwich has sent already high corporate real estate prices higher. It has created a growing finance industry in a town already known for its wealth.
Prime office space that was priced at about $50 to $55 a square foot before hedge funds began to expand in Greenwich five years ago is now running as high as $80 to $85 a square foot, Mr. Torelli said.
Top-line office space in Manhattan can go as high as $100 a square foot and the average price per square foot in Midtown Manhattan runs around $40 to $50.
During the day, many hedge fund employees do not leave their offices. For lunch they use Seamless Web, an online food directory that allows workers to place orders for delivery to their offices.
If they do get to walk outside, they can stroll Greenwich Avenue and has stores that sell high-end goods.
At least for me I appreciate the extra space and the serenity that Greenwich offers," the 24-year-old hedge fund employee said.
Manu Bangia, 23, works as a technology consultant for hedge funds and spends two days a week working in Stamford. His commute from Jersey City can take four hours.
When he first started work, Mr. Bangia said, "I expected Stamford to be in the middle of nowhere. But you don't see tumbleweeds there."
This article from NYTimes documents the arrival of towns across Connecticut as emerging financial centers, specially among hedge funds. If you plan to find work at hedge funds after graduation, this is something to keep in mind.
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: August 4, 2006
Thousands of young financial workers stream into Grand Central Terminal every weekday morning.
But many are not on their way to offices on Wall Street or in Midtown. Instead, they are crowded into trains for Greenwich, Conn., which has emerged as the home of the ballooning hedge fund industry.
The center of power in finance has shifted in recent years, and in one sense that shift is geographical. Some of the most powerful traders in the market can be found miles away from Wall Street, in Greenwich, Stamford, and Westport, Conn.
"If you look up and down the train line in Connecticut you will see all the hedge funds concentrated right along the line," said Thomas Torelli, a corporate real estate agent in Greenwich.
Those funds are there because their founders and top managers live nearby. But thousands of their employees do not and as result do what to the rest of Wall Street is a reverse commute.
The trains leaving Grand Central between 7 and 8:30 a.m. are packed. Most seats are taken and conversation is sparse. Unlike Wall Street commuters, many are not wearing suits. Yet like the Wall Street crowd, some are working furiously on their BlackBerrys and laptops.
A little less than an hour later, when the train rolls into Greenwich, workers stream out of the train and walk to their nearby offices.
Greenwich is quiet, peaceful and clean,'' said a young hedge fund employee on the train who lives in Manhattan. "But I am 24 and single — I couldn't imagine living in Greenwich."
He spoke on the condition that he and his firm not be named because he was not authorized by the hedge fund to speak to reporters. Many other commuters declined to comment for the same reason.
Hedge funds are notoriously secretive organizations. They will not disclose who their employees or investors are, much less their strategies. Now, apparently, how their employees commute is off limits, as well.
Still, it is clear that one of the most important factors for the thousands of hedge funds located in Connecticut is to be within walking distance of the train station, Mr. Torelli said.
Hedge funds started to grow like weeds around here and drive the real estate market from the mid-1990's till now," he said.
Metro-North Railroad estimates that the number of commuters from Manhattan to Greenwich increased 150 percent as of last fall from 10 years ago, and 170 percent to Stamford.
The president of the Greenwich Chamber of Commerce, Mary Ann Morrison, said she also began to notice the number of commuters from Manhattan starting to grow about five years ago.
These hedge funds, the staff they need are young ones who still have stamina and still want to be part of the city, so they do the reverse commute and get off here in Greenwich,'' she said. "If they live in Midtown it's no different than commuting from the Upper East Side to Wall Street."
The increased popularity of Greenwich has sent already high corporate real estate prices higher. It has created a growing finance industry in a town already known for its wealth.
Prime office space that was priced at about $50 to $55 a square foot before hedge funds began to expand in Greenwich five years ago is now running as high as $80 to $85 a square foot, Mr. Torelli said.
Top-line office space in Manhattan can go as high as $100 a square foot and the average price per square foot in Midtown Manhattan runs around $40 to $50.
During the day, many hedge fund employees do not leave their offices. For lunch they use Seamless Web, an online food directory that allows workers to place orders for delivery to their offices.
If they do get to walk outside, they can stroll Greenwich Avenue and has stores that sell high-end goods.
At least for me I appreciate the extra space and the serenity that Greenwich offers," the 24-year-old hedge fund employee said.
Manu Bangia, 23, works as a technology consultant for hedge funds and spends two days a week working in Stamford. His commute from Jersey City can take four hours.
When he first started work, Mr. Bangia said, "I expected Stamford to be in the middle of nowhere. But you don't see tumbleweeds there."
