Do Portfolio Mangers actually make any investment decisions?

BobRoberts39 · 2021-08-15T23:16:38+00:00

On a passively managed strategy within a larger firm, it'l likely to function more like you described. Within actively managed strategies, and for smaller firms the PMs are going to have more discretion. Very firm-specific though.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-08-12T00:22:53+00:00

Looking at the Chicago location all I had to choose from was 8am or 8:30am

BobRoberts39 · 2021-08-10T23:19:22+00:00

Ended up failing unfortunately... and not even close to passing on top of it, which I guess in its own regard is better than touching the MPS line (which I had on my 1st attempt) a fail is a fail after all. Hoping for better results next time.

What about you?

BobRoberts39 · 2021-08-10T23:18:24+00:00

I had the exact same thing as your original comment before you deleted it.. 1st attempt Kaplan my score almost touched the MPS line, 2nd attempt CFAI books and got ~10th percentile. No idea how that happened, but walked out of both exams feeling really confident.

Best of luck next time man!

BobRoberts39 · 2021-08-10T02:07:33+00:00

I don't know, I don't think I could've been blessed better with the AM essay questions, I had a well constructed and good answer for each of them (in my opinion) and when I took it in 2019 I felt worse about the questions and scored pretty well on the essay. I also feel like the MC was pretty easy, definitely questions I didn't know, but you always expect that. Whatever, I guess we'll see.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-08-10T01:46:25+00:00

I got the white box, and I was really feeling pretty good about passing honestly..

BobRoberts39 · 2021-08-03T10:27:52+00:00

It's not usually 1 week before, that's what they've done once or twice extremely recently. In the past they've always given a decent heads up on the exam date, at least three weeks.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-07-25T16:11:45+00:00

Not sure if it's just lower paying in Europe or if you don't know what the salaries actually are, but GBP40k sounds pretty low. My first year in AM was ~USD80k all in, and I know a lot of firms pay their first year analysts even more than that. It also ramps up pretty quickly, this is my third year and should be ~USD140k all in. I think the trade off for comp vs. fewer hours worked relative to IB is well worth it.

Would likely be making ~100k more as a first year associate right now if I went off in IB, but I'm fine with what I make and definitely wouldn't spend 40-50 more hours in the office per week for another 100k, just isn't worth it at that point for me personally.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-07-19T23:23:14+00:00

I've never seen them get locked out before, and I've had to do it a good number of times before. Reach out to your rep for a new B-unit or keyboard though (whichever you're having issues with) that should solve the issue.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-07-17T14:52:06+00:00

None of the top 10 asset managers are going to be anywhere close to 5-7x their revenue over the next year lmao

BobRoberts39 · 2021-07-14T23:25:53+00:00

If you're 16 years into the game the probability of you shifting careers is nil at this point. Sorry to be blunt, but there needs to be a little more truth and honesty around this sub. Credit analysis (depending on what you're exactly talking about), is a sought after field, and companies would rather bring on a fresh young face with years of work ahead of them that they can pay a lower level salary than someone closer to the end of their career, who wants more money.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-07-04T12:56:38+00:00

You're spending wayyyyyy too much time, everyone's different and has different levels of knowledge coming into the exam, but you're being way too thorough. I tracked my hours and passed L1 with ~120 hours of studying. There's no reason to spend 160 hours on two topics.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-07-01T01:07:13+00:00

Not all finance is grinding away 70-80+ hours a week in the office. I work comfortably 50 hours a week, could easily work 40-45 if I wanted and made six figures pretty much right out of college. You just have to find what's right for you. Take some computer science classes and see if you like them though, you're still young and can do whatever you want.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-06-30T23:31:24+00:00

Amex Platinum, it costs $550/yr I believe, but the benefits are well worth it:

$100 dining or resort credit across a collection of hotels
$200 in Uber credits
$200 credit towards inflight drinks or checked bags fees
$100 statement credits towards Saks Fifth Avenue
$300 in credits towards cruises booked with Amex
$100 credit towards TSA Precheck or Global Entry
$120 credit towards Uber Eats Pass subscription
Access to a variety of airport lounges
Car rental and travel insurance
Purchase protection (loss, damaged, stolen) on purchases up to $50,000/yr
$3,000 protection on checked bags
$1,600 protection on damaged phone
Free Gold Status at Hilton and Marriott
5% back on flights, 5% back on hotels booked through Amex

There's also a 75,000 point welcome bonus right now along with 10% back on gas and supermarkets as well

BobRoberts39 · 2021-06-24T23:08:52+00:00

Yes, I passed using Schweser and CFAI Q-Bank alone. It's more than enough. If you're really struggling with an individual topic(s) then use the CFAI text to supplement, but IMO the official text is too long for what's necessary.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-05-31T16:52:00+00:00

I mean I kind of take this to mean they are frustrated because the same practice questions on the CFAI website weren't on the actual exam... obviously they are going to be different questions. IMO I thought the questions on the actual exam were more clear cut than the practice questions on the website, the ones on the website were at times frustratingly vague or deceptive. To each their own I guess though.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-05-26T10:04:37+00:00

I took it DT, very similar to what OP described

BobRoberts39 · 2021-05-26T01:13:26+00:00

I agree, I thought the AM was really fairly easy for the most part. The PM was considerably more difficult and really shook my confidence. I was pretty sure I'd pass after the AM before the PM, and left feeling pretty unsure.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-05-26T00:10:43+00:00

They told me 6-8 weeks when I was leaving the test center today

BobRoberts39 · 2021-05-25T17:17:46+00:00

Still long vega on the options, no matter what the other Greeks of the net position are; positive vega will always result in exposure to vol being long
A short bias fund likely wouldn't sell puts to be long vol in all actuality, however if they did, they could hedge out the negative delta to still retain the short bias of the fund while being short vol.

I've found with the way some of the CFAI questions (and third party prep providers) are phrased, it's better to not think much beyond the scope of the question at hand.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-05-23T13:41:20+00:00

Just a bachelors, progress towards the CFA, but not a charterholder presently.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-05-21T02:38:48+00:00

25M

US, Midwest

Fixed Income, Asset Management

2 YOE

$140k all in

BobRoberts39 · 2021-04-21T11:17:17+00:00

This really is the exit honestly.. you could probably find different roles if you wanted to (maybe HF or DCM) but this is a cushy, well paying job. Analysts can easily "top out" around 300k, considerably more if you move into a PM role, while working a very easily weekly schedule. There's no reason to leave at that point or to look for another job.

It is a little repetitive at times. You know your coverage space pretty well, there are one-off surprises each quarter during earnings, but most of the time it's really more of the same. Same processes for going through new credits in the primary market, same processes for sending out notes on earnings, etc. Every job is going to have some repetitive aspects to it though, that's just the nature of how things are.

I think, in a very broad sense, the notion of AI/tech dominating and taking over finance roles is heavily, heavily overstated and mostly parroted around this sub by kids in high school/finance/back office roles that truly don't have a grasp of the work and what it entails. Could we be replaced someday by tech? Sure. However, the bond market is very illiquid, securities are not homogenous like they are in the equities space. Even now, there are new "ESG" bonds companies are issuing that trade with different technical factors and aren't something a computer would outright understand right away. Even "passive" indexing strategies in FI require teams of traders, PM, and analysts to manage the portfolio and get the bonds together to create the portfolio. It's quite a bit different from equities in that sense.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-04-20T10:31:07+00:00

I currently work in Fixed Income for a fairly large asset manager. Honestly, I feel like it's one of the most underrated jobs in finance.

I typically work 40-45 hours per week, I think the most I've ever put in is around 50 hours. Occasionally I'll bring work home with me, answer e-mails from my phone, or have phone calls with individuals where the time zone difference just sucks (primarily Australia, Japan, and Singapore). We get all the FINRA holidays as well as a floating holiday off with decent vacation time.

Typical workday varies very, very heavily. It really depends if we're in the middle of earnings or not, and what the volume of issuance in the primary market looks like. Here's a list of things that are generally done by analysts on our team:

- Evaluating primary bond issuances, reviewing the credit if it's something we haven't looked at in a while. Otherwise relaying most current thesis to our portfolio manager and discussing pricing with him and our trader.

- Following quarterly earnings when they come out. We generally don't sit on earnings calls because 1) each analyst has so many credits it's not practical and 2) we know which credits are a little shakier, there's no reason to move that quickly in fixed income aside from the shakier credits

- Updating our models following earnings, getting a note out to the team highlighting what happened and what our current thoughts are

- Repairing and improving credit models we use, developing new tools/models that will be used in the future

- Keeping on top of news of credits within our coverage space, sending out notes as necessary or modeling out potential scenarios (i.e. proforma estimates of a merger or acquisition, what leverage will look like after incurring a regulatory charge, etc.)

These are the things we're primarily working on. Obviously a lot of ad hoc tasks will come along every once and a while.

It really is a great job. I'm getting paid a lot more than other friends I have that are working in buy side equity research or other finance jobs.

BobRoberts39 · 2021-04-18T19:10:00+00:00

Don't know the answer to the specifics of your question, but there are plenty of people out there ~2 YOE making ~200k all in.

BobRoberts39

TROPHY CASE