Assistant Portfolio Manager?

saxxyman:

You mean assistant to the portfolio manager? =p

Depends on the job description, depends on how much experience the position is asking for, depends on the asset class, etc. Do you have any more information?

First of all, thanks for your reply.

Well, there are a couple of offers. This one looks more "execution" oriented:

• Work closely with the FM’s to calculate and implement trades across the desk Portfolios. • Be responsible for restriction monitoring ensuring all trades conform with client mandates and in-house rules. • Monitor execution and settlement of trades, providing updates to the FM’s on execution. • Monitor margin balances and futures rolls. • Ensure all trades are correctly reported in our Accounting and Analytic Systems. • Monitor the impact of, and manage, cashflows, asset allocations and fund transitions. • Maintain all trade records and back up documentation. • Manage and update of Portfolio models. • Provide daily reporting sheets on performance, cash balances and positions for all funds for internal review by FMs highlighting potential accounting issues. • Maintain and monitor daily cash balances and margin movements. • Resolve pricing and accounting issues. • Monitor portfolios for corporate actions, fund distributions and asset expiry. • Produce information for regular and ad-hoc reports.

This one looks more "junior PM":

Day to day management of a small Implementation team based in London and growing the team across geographies, asset classes and fund proportions

· Building a structure within the trade input environment and allowing Portfolio Managers to be more flexible with their time

· Monitoring daily asset allocation and implementation gaps across portfolios

· Daily interaction with Portfolio Managers to help reduce trading errors and mitigate implementation risks.

At my current bank we call "junior PM" to the junior who work with PMs but still don't "own" any fund (just help PMs). This is my current role and I am looking for something similar. Just wondering if "assistant PM" is the same role.

This is spot on.

BlackRock, Alliance, Neuberger, etc. all post these "Associate PM" roles. The description are typically vague, but I can assure you that they are almost all midoffice functions. I went in for an interview for one of these roles and was sadly surprised when they discussed the actual responsibilities.

On the other hand, you can certainly spin that role into something more 'substantial' in maybe 3-5 years. But if youre already in a FO role, it would be a waste of time.

Of course, I'm not expecting to get any portfolio for myself. I don't have any own portfolio right now. As I mentioned, my current role is "junior PM". I work for Senior PM. I execute their investment decision, back up them when they are out of the office or in vacation and read tons of research to provide investment ideas. This means I can "create" investment ideas, but can not implement them without discussing them with my boss first.

I don't want to get my own portfolio to run, just something similar to my current position. Would I have to look for something like Research analyst or something like that?