I use the three screens regularly, two would definitely be inconvenient. I don’t do much intensive data work, but if I’m looking at a company for example, I can be using one screen to scroll through fundamentals and another through related commodity data while the third can either be used for excel / word or to compose an email in without constantly switching back and forth. It just allows me to peruse multiple data sets alongside each other easily.
do you think perusing multiple data sets easily will be a robot’s job at some point? seems like you could have a decision maker tell a robot to do that work and report back with whatever analysis he/she is interested in having done.
just curious if that’s happening at all.
You’d be surprised how quickly you get used to it, then depend on it. I used to have four monitors. That was the bomb-diggity!
Edit - and to answer your question–A lot of the time I am looking at e-mails/PDF’s that clients have sent me (Monitor 1), entering the information into Quickbooks or another accounting system (Monitor 2), last year’s tax program so we know how we handled the transaction last year (Monitor 3), and this year’s tax program to enter the current-year information (Monitor 4).
Not at all. I look at data sets but the lions share of my contribution is qualitative… knowing and predicting when risk and payout dynamics shift into a non-linear structure and altering our investment behavior. I could see that being different for some sectors than other, but in macro driven areas, I just don’t think the rigidity of a analytical program can handle the type of analysis that is required. I may look at 50 factors and draw out 5 as providing the right noise / signal and that is based on my understanding of the backdrop and what’s occurring beneath the surface.
It’s not uncommon for two industry pros to look at the same data set and reach different conclusions. Most of my work isn’t necessarily an “analysis” in terms of computing a hard number and a I do very little modeling. It’s hard to accurately make my point without really writing a treatise on it.
I tend to be pretty philosophical in how I approach a lot of my calls. I know a lot of analysts who’s work could be automated but I don’t think that would really apply in my case.
Is there a correlation between # of screens and salary? What about likelihood of being a bsd?
^ I think there is a correlation between salary and not having to look at a screen. The highest paid guys I know are staring down a fairway most of the work day.