How should I include portfolio perfomance into my resume?
Hi WSO,
I am hoping to secure an equity trading position but I am having trouble with the wording/phrasing of how to present my portfolio performance and achievements in my resume. I am looking to include the following information:
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Seven [and a half] years of experience managing my personal brokerage account (from high school through college) with an average annual compounded return of over 38% and cumulative return of over 1050%. I leveraged my investments with student loans at a ratio of 20:1 when I entered college.
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I entered a global stock investment competition in July 2011 with over 120,000 entrants (currently down to 80,000+). After six months, my rank rose to the top 100 (top 99.9%). My cumulative return is currently around 105% and my current ranking moves day to day in the 80-90 range.
My resume includes 4 sections: my schooling, honors/achievements, work experience, and skills. I am not sure if I should include this information under my achievements or if I should create a separate section. I'd really appreciate any comments/critiques on how to word/present my portfolio in my resume.
I wouldn't include it at all, but that's my view. Somebody could have invested in Apple 7 years ago and be up like 900% doesn't mean that he/she is good at trading.
Completely agree.
Leave out #2, mock competitions don't deserve bullets, imo
For #1, I'd include a bullet or two about it but not make it sound cheesy. Leave the performance numbers out
Yesterday I had an investment consulting interview and the first thing he said was "So you've been trading since you were 14, tell me more about that", that's when you explain the specifics
I would absolutely add #2 under honors/achievments; top 100 of a mock investing competition with over 100,000 participants is no joke. When it inevitably comes up in the interview you can talk about how #1 helped you learn about investing and what you did to get yourself to that 1st percentile. Know that inside and out and importantly, know which portion of your returns was luck and which portion was a function of strategic decisions you made. give yourself credit where its due. i simply had 'managing p.a.' under interests on my resume and we talked about it the whole time during one my superday interviews at the BB i currently work at.
don't
Id probably add it as a single line under the "skills/interests/other" section at the bottom. This is assuming you have internships. If not, you could probably include it at the top under the clubs/activities section.
If you are going to include it I would spend more time talking about your strategy and risk management than the actual returns. I would be more inclined to interview you if you said you ran a beta neutral pairs trading strategy with specific risk parameters and target volatility/returns
in my opinion this is the best advice in this thread. everything else is somewhat up to you and how you want to present yourself given the culture of that firm, not much else.
include them both in the activities/interests section. i had a work section and an "other financial experience" section or something like that where i put stuff about managing money and investing and stuff. great conversation starter, just be prepared to talk about ur strategy because good returns means they want to call bs on you. if you cant have a 20 minute conversation about the market and your strategy, then dont put it at all
Thank you all for your inputs! I really appreciate it! And I think it's a fantastic idea to have a separate section called "other financial experience" or something to that effect, thank you for the tip BlackHat.
With regards to explaining my strategy--would anyone know how they may ask about this? What are some key points they will definitely touch on? Should I focus on explaining it in a broad and technical way similar to what Ovechhkin08 suggested "a beta neutral pairs trading strategy with specific risk parameters and target volatility/returns" etc or is it better to approach it by using specific examples from my past or current positions and explain why I took them?
adding my own stock portfolio onto resume (Originally Posted: 04/27/2011)
just wondering how i should incorporate my own stock portfolio onto my resume
Probably not recommended. If you're managing a portfolio as a professional responsibility, that would be different, but putting portfolio management skills on your resume if you're applying to a mutual fund or banking S&T ninety-nine times out of a hundred is like a five year old showing a stick-figure drawing to a curator at the Met.
Getting portfolio management experience is great, but it's not necessarily something to brag about to these people. Everyone has a portfolio, and most of the times, college students who outperform just got lucky. Now, if you came up with a specialized strategy and turned $5K into $500K in a year or so, and you're prepared to discuss how that strategy works (don't give too much of it away) and the risks behind it, that's very different. But if you're just a good stock picker, that's already kinda assumed if you're trying to get into research or trading. No need to risk shooting yourself in the foot.
Focus on what you bring to the table that they don't already have. That's the key here. 3.8 GPA from Wharton, "I'm Hungry", and connecting well with the interviewers won't cut it on their own. Focus on something specialized that they might not have realized they already need.
agreed.
thank you
Listing self-investment portfolio on applications and resume? (Originally Posted: 04/25/2015)
First and foremost, I would like to apologize for my ignorance as I am a newbie here. Over past 2 years, I have invested my life savings and bought equities (15-20%) in one start-up company and 2 restaurants. They all have been doing okay and I don't plan on exiting any of them anytime soon.
Is it safe to list my portfolio investment on resume/applications for IB and PE analyst gigs? I attended a semi-target, I have only 2 boutique PE internships and 2 years of Hotel restructuring/acquisitions under my belt, so I may need to show something to differentiate myself.
Thanks!
Kev.
Not recommended, as they will likely grill you on your investment procedure. Unless you are prepared to defend your investment thesis, potential downside is much higher than upside.
^Ignore the grinch and list your stuff if you've done well/beaten the market/haven't lost too much. If your results are good, they will speak for themselves (although thats really fucking impossible in the long run). Though you should have some idea about why they were good investments. Really, this would just be another area for interviewers to test your knowledge of whether you can think logically about the markets. So you be the judge of that.
Thanks guys! These aren't stock investments, they are pretty much equity partnerships in private businesses. I am involved in operations from time-to-time (very limited). These investments are doing fairly well, and I can prove it by bringing documentation if interviewed and asked to defend my case.
To answer astfin-juki, my investment procedure was pretty much standard, " due-diligence, my 3 statement-model, comparative market analysis, researched the area for prospective construction development (this would bring more business to the restaurant), interviewed the management/owners, surveyed customers (time, age group etc..), hired an attorney and cpa etc...."
Thanks!
Resume advice. How important is having a personal portfolio for getting internships? (Originally Posted: 06/19/2011)
Many people have told me just having your own portfolio is huge with recruiters because it demonstrates an active interest in the markets. that makes since if you were trying to get an S&T internship, but would it be that big of a plus if you were going for an IBD internship? what might be some good activities that would be attractive to IBD recruiters?
Did the people who told you this work in the industry or were they college students/career services?
they were just college students, some that had already gone thru a SA position and some who were preparing for the interviewing process. I suppose it would be a good idea to actually go and ask career services - prob should of thought of that before...
Most kids can't afford a portfolio so I wouldn't worry about it. A virtual portfolio couldn't hurt
I would also like to know this. I was at an IBD interview at a BB and was asked if I did any investing, what shares would I recommend and if I have a favourite company? Thought it was quite strange seeing as it was ibd. Might be relevant to add that these questions came from the analyst and not from the associate or VP with whom I also interviewed. Anyhow, are ibd interviewees expected to have good, well thought out answers to questions like these?
Actually many people in S&T don't like people listing any kind of personal portfolio. They might be very hard on you because of that, because the kind of people who do that are usually the ones who walk in and say something like "I've been investing in the equities market since I was 14 and I know everything there is to know". Although it's true some of them do. So I wouldn't list it, especially for IBD since it's not that relevant. If someone in IBD asks you about a stock, he probably wants an answer more fundamental analysis related. Talk about P/E ratio, EPS, EBITDA, new products, advantages over competition, etc...
I don't think its necessary. do you have anything else to demonstrate your interest in the capital markets? i would definitely recommend having a few companies you have researched, be able to talk about why you do/dont like it, where you see value, etc... I'm sure you're already aware of this, but you will likely get these questions.
What if your poor as shit and can barely afford tuition...definitely not going to put myself more into debt while half-assing it with a portfolio outside of school and work. Hope it doesn't count against me.
In terms of whether or not can afford a portfolio, you can simulate one and not have to worry about actually spending your washingtons
Resume help: manage personal portfolio (Originally Posted: 04/27/2009)
.......
Interests, personal investing
Under Activities/Interests - Summarize your stock picking strategy and returns to date
Resume: portfolio management... list amount? (Originally Posted: 04/07/2008)
I actively invest $20K... it's from my own savings, family, and friends. Should I list the $ value on my resume?
I would focus on your yearly performance and let the interviewer ask how much you invest if they really want to know
Seems a bit crass to include the amount unless you are managing a fund (i.e. family, friends, > 500K). Don't include the value
Seven Figure Portfolio in Resume (Originally Posted: 12/03/2012)
Gentlemen,
I manage a little over $1mm in a personal investment account and would like to add this number on my resume but was wondering if this could hurt me in the interview process? I am pretty young (early 20's) and only a small (less than 10%) of that money is actually mine. It is set up as a brokerage account under my parent's retirement, which I manage. They are mostly in bonds (~80%), my money is in riskier investments. I would really like to include the larger number of the overall account rather than my "personal" amount. Is this okay?
Thanks guys
You had me at "gentlemen."
I'm a college student, but if I was interviewing you I'd ask why the hell all of your parent's retirement money is in bonds. Make some shit up, and say you recently exercised your 1,500 November 77 OTM call options on NFLX, so your parents could retire at 55 instead of 65.
Haha! The majority of their investments are in fixed income, with added REITs and a few mutual funds here and there as well. They are ready to retire (within the next 2 years) and don't really need to take on any more risk. Thanks for the reply.
I wouldn't mention that the money is your parents. But do mention that it is not all yours and you are being trusted by others. You don't want it to seem like you are trying to buy the interview.
Portfolio on resume? (Originally Posted: 10/02/2012)
For you monkeys out there, how would you word on your resume that you have a personal brokerage account investing only your own money -- say through Charles Schwab or E*Trade?
-6 months in the market
-mainly swing trading, some speculation
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