Wall St financiers party like there's no tomorrow -- literally
Dec 5 01:12 PM US/Eastern
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The hedge fund dealers partied at a New York nightclub like there was no tomorrow -- which for some was probably true.
Swilling martinis and vodkas, they filled Manhattan's white, tent-themed Nikki Beach to bursting. Waiters, trays of tapas held high in the air, became stranded, wedged into crowds swaying to music under pink lights.

About 650 guests attended the event late Wednesday, a third more than organizers expected.

Yet with hedge funds in freefall, this was more funeral wake than celebration.

"The industry is down 20 percent. It's by far the worst environment we've ever seen and we'll see a lot of funds going out of business," said Evan Rapoport, co-founder of HedgeCo Networks, which services hedge funds and organized the party.

The evening was billed as a networking session. Sometimes that meant angling for a particularly special deal.

"A lot of people are looking for a job," said Nicole Alexander from Ovation Group, a corporate travel company.

"There is no stigma now because so many people have lost jobs," she said. "The joke is that the new status symbol, instead of a Porsche or Ferrari, is having health insurance and a desk."


Job losses across Wall Street are forecast by New York state accountants to hit 48,000 by the end of next year.

Hedge funds, which have long prided themselves on their resilience, are reeling.

A new study by Morgan Stanley predicts assets under hedge fund management globally will drop to 900 billion dollars by the end of 2009, half the peak valuation earlier this year.

And as clients run for the exits, growing numbers of hedge funds have imposed emergency blocks on the ability to withdraw money.

To admirers, hedge fund traders are risk-taking, profit-hauling buccaneers who can afford to bet big because they deal only with big players.

Detractors say hedge funds embody under-regulated, over-leveraged and greed-driven business practices responsible for the US financial crisis.

Either way, the sense is that these masters of the universe, as Tom Wolfe christened traders in the novel "Bonfire of the Vanities," won't party much longer.

"They're masking their fear," said a heavy set equities broker at Nikki Beach, who asked not to be identified, as he surveyed his colleagues, drink in hand.

"The gig's over and they're in denial. A lot of people are going to be in shock."

"It's been a tough year," said Mitchel Manoff, CEO of hedge fund Corinthian Partners. "The hedge fund community says they can make money in all markets. This year, though, they haven't."

Of course, there are profits to make, even in hard times.


Nikhil Khandelwal, who raises money at ThornWood Capital, gleefully described his company's ability to charge clients sharply increased interest on loans that banks now refuse.

"It's a sad reality but we make money when others lose it," he said, not sounding sad.

Khandelwal, wearing a pin stripe suit, had no sympathy for those in the mayhem. "You come to a hedge fund to make excessive money, so you know the risks."

Hedge fund brokerages face pressure from Washington following Barack Obama's victory in an election where the need for greater regulation was a constant theme.

Rapoport said the crisis is already forcing hedge funds to reform and he expects the industry to reemerge smaller, yet healthier and unburdened by highly leveraged debt.

"It will be ripped down and built up, but the build-up will be much stronger," he said. Once the effects of over-leveraging are "cleared out, that should be a real positive."

Steve Tosi, a trader at Magna Securities, agreed.

He noted that Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel himself worked two and a half highly lucrative years in the finance sector and received hedge fund campaign donations.

Hedge funds "play it very well politically," Tosi said. "Will they be over-regulated? Will they be told they're bad, that they make too much money? Will Obama say that? I don't think that will happen."


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