Volatility? Pah! If anyone is going to take a confident stance amid roiling equities markets, it’s bound to be a big hedge fund. The intended valuation of Och Ziff Capital Management, which priced its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday evening, had been cut by 40 per cent last month. That would have been enough to derail many an IPO. But Och Ziff had good reasons to launch now.

For starters, at $32 per share – slightly above the middle of the range – Och Ziff is hardly going for a song. The implied 2008 price/earnings multiple of 13 puts it at a small discount to the smaller GLG Partners’ 15 times. But pay structures – favouring distributions over salaries for top executives – affect earnings calculations, which may explain some of that disparity. And the multiple is in line with Blackstone Group and Fortress Investment Group. On the admittedly crude measure of market capitalisation as a proportion of assets under management, Och Ziff weighs in at more than 40 per cent. GLG, Blackstone and Fortress command 20, 25 and 18 per cent respectively.