What do you like most about your job as an investment manager?

There are many different things to like about the investment management industry, but I would highlight two things that I think are particularly important to me. First, I enjoy the fact that markets are always changing, which means that no two days are the same and you are constantly learning and it is virtually impossible to get bored. Additionally, I like that my job has an important impact on many different people, as our firm is managing money for literally millions of individuals as part of their retirement plans.

On the other hand, the daily news cycle has a tendency to encourage people to focus on the short term. In investing, it is very important to take a longer term perspective, and having people/organizations that make decisions based on short term swings is challenging, when we are managing for the longer term. This is a frustrating part of the business.

Hi Nicole,

I always tell people that the best thing about investment management is you get paid to read, think, and speak often with really interesting clients. It's a people business.

Steve

Hello!

I am not an investment manager. To take a view at it, at a moment of crisis, watch the movie "Margin Call" by getting the DVD. It is worth buying it. You watch it one time then you go to special features for the deleted scenes, then you watch again with the commentary on, and then you decide if you want to watch once again one week, or one month later.
The movie appears to be depicting the night before Lehman Brothers went down.
Here is a relevant clip. Irons is the CEO. Sullivan is an analyst with a Ph.D. in aeronautics, not an MBA.
My degree is in Physics, earned before the computers altered the humans' feelings about numbers.
Read also "The Physics of Wall Street"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=366DExfdQWM