First, I have hated the spring/summer seasons for the past 5 yrs as I have been battling through this “Body of Knowledge”. Summer is no off time for my brain. I can not stop thinking about that morning session and how I had zero time to go back and fill in some areas on certain questions. That derivatives question was B.S. to me and if I had the time I know I would have nailed it. The afternoon session was scary easy to me - da**it, I hate that feeling!! Second, I have always finished what I started and will certainly not give up on this if August 19th is a gloomy day. Either way, I am already taking the 20th off to nurse a hangover. Third, I am a relationship manager at a private bank and do not manage the assets of my clients directly- it is the PM’s job to do so. I am looking for an out to possibly the institutional side. My experience is 6+ yrs in private banking with the first 3 in portfolio management (hence, the beginning of my CFA adventure). Does anybody have any suggestions of where to begin? Boutique? Capital Markets? Mutual fund? I know this is broad, but wanted to get anybody’s thoughts on where to begin. Bottom line: I want to put all my outside-of-work, self-study, effort to work for me. That is enough venting for now.
Why are you not happy just being an RM? Do you want to be able to touch money? This brings me to my own situation. I am in research and consulting but badly want to be in a PM role. But I feel that I dont have the personality for it. I am assuming that you need to somewhat of a trader’s profile to be a successful PM. But the real money is in managing it. I do make a very comfortable living but will never be ‘filthy’ rich.
I am lukewarm happy in my current role, but think I could be more successful managing money. However, my personality fits the RM profile. So, very confused at this point and think that the market conditions/lack of new biz has waned my enthusiasm a bit.
Golfein-any chance you could switch over to a PM role at your current firm or is that not of interest?
Hedge funds?
How do you guys look at investment consulting? Would you consder it a top career path or just and ok one. Whats the future now that the DB plans are getting killed.
What is investment consulting?
its bascially advising institutional clients on investment pollicy, asset allocation, implementation, IPS, monitoring, manager research and selection etc.
tvPM - I have thought about that, but that role has limited upside from my current position ($$). And, quite frankly, it does not seem as exciting. Maybe the hedge Fund route is more applicable to me. I am looking to sell/manage a strategy that is more blackbox.
Golffein Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > tvPM - I have thought about that, but that role > has limited upside from my current position ($$). > And, quite frankly, it does not seem as exciting. > Maybe the hedge Fund route is more applicable to > me. I am looking to sell/manage a strategy that > is more blackbox. Email me if you’re interested in sharing at least the outlines of the strategy. I’m in the process of starting something up.
Golffein – What did you mean that your first three years were in portfolio mangement?
I worked on the buy-side managing affluent clients’, foundations and trust portfolios. Had about $50MM under managment. It was kind of the training wheels for larger undertakings, but then had the opportunity to take on the “more generalist” role (banker). Now, I am looking to get more focus on the investment side again.
Can you guys tell me how much a PM makes, say with 10 years of experience. base plus bonus. Thanks.
that is gonna be a wide wide range depending on too many factors ie-what kind of PM (PWM, MF, HF, etc), where (NYC, Boston, Michigan)
just give a ballpark for 2 or 3 combos above. thanks.
100-350k 500k-5MM
CFA does little to add an edge without direct experience, if you were a trader and a BA only, you would be in better place. i d say its better to start within your firm or find an analyst position, which may be a longer more indirect path. unless you have up-to-date views or investment ideas (say, at least, a research analysts) or unless you know someone who can confide in you, it can be pretty hard to break into buy side. real money can take a look at you, but again you have to have money-generating ideas, views, some analytical background. if you were to manage PCS money for a while that would give you an edge already. in real money, not all firms (smaller) will let you directly trade your ideas, usually analyst, PM and trader are separate roles blackbox is not a real money strategy.in general, on a hedge-fund side one would want to see some track record, what was your performance over the past few years. here you may have a benefit of doing everything on your own (analyst, PM, trader roles combined, but not always). but here you need much more of a trader spirit than in real money. hope it is not discouraging, its not meant to be. you just seem to be in already good position to get your hands around PM internally. good luck