Private Equity Is on Sale
Secondary market valuations, Roaring Kitty’s livestream, DJT ticker confusion, quant pivot to AI, elite recruiting, BNB and parking lots.
Most people who buy and sell financial assets for a living need to know how much their portfolio is worth at any given time, or at least at the end of the quarter. If you manage investments for clients, you have to send the clients periodic statements saying “your investments are worth $_____”; you have to know what number to put in the blank. The clients want to know, for one thing, but also, how much you charge the clients might depend on the number that you put in the blank. If you charge the clients a percentage of current assets, then you need to know what the assets are currently worth. If you charge the clients a performance fee on unrealized gains, you need to know how much the value of the assets has increased since the last statement. Even if you don’t manage client money, your employers will want to know how much your portfolio is worth, so they can keep an eye on risk and pay you for your performance.
Also, though, many people who buy and sell financial assets for a living are fundamentally in the business of looking for mispriced assets. Your job is to find some situation with edge, some place where you have more expertise or patience or capacity than the market, some asset that you know is undervalued but that the market will sell to you cheap.