Personal Investing on Resume

I was wondering whether to put my personal investing on my resume. I currently manage a portfolio for my parents and some relatives of about $650k and have had returns that consistently beat market returns in the past year. If so, how would I put this on my resume? Don't reply with start a hedge fund and do that for a living. Would placing this on my resume, with a track record of approximately a year be beneficial? Or should it just be a single bullet point (vs. a entry the length of a club or job experience)?

Can I Put Day Trader on Resume?

If you are managing a large sum of money or outperforming the markets (consistently) with your own personal portfolio you can definitely include this on your resume as it can demonstrate both your serious interest in the markets as well as your investing prowess (if you are outperforming the market.)

If you are running a relatively small amount of money - you can just put day trading or personal portfolio management on the interest section of your resume; however, if you are running a 5 or 6 figure portfolio like the OP you can build out a section on your resume for this.

Under the relevant experience / finance experience part of your resume you can include a few lines like the example below.

User @break-into-banking" shared sample resume bullets:

break-into-banking:
  • Actively manage 600k+ portfolio of stocks, bonds, ETFs, and options through application of [insert valuation technique(s)]
  • Beat market by x% over portfolio's life
  • Achieved the following returns: NAH 25%, WUE 57%, AMC 45%

If you don't want to state $600k you can always write "six-figure".

Sample Resume for Managing Personal Portfolio

You can see a sample of how this might look below.



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I would include it as a single line highlighting your % returns, but not necessarily $ amount since many people will not be impressed with managing your relatives' portfolios as a student. That said, managing your personal portfolio with a strong % return is a nice resume boost.

 

I was wondering about this too. Should it be located in like the Skills, and interests section? Also, what would be considered a good return? (% over market, quarterly? , etc.)

Reality hits you hard, bro...
 

The fact that you literally manage 600k+ of assets is extremely impressive, regardless of your returns. I mean the fact that you got people to trust you with serious cash tells me something about you.

I would include two lines of bullets: 1)Actively anage 600k+ portfolio through application of [insert valuation technique(s)] 2)Beat market by x% over portfolio's life

 
MagicKarp:
The fact that you literally manage 600k+ of assets is extremely impressive, regardless of your returns. I mean the fact that you got people to trust you with serious cash tells me something about you.

I would include two lines of bullets: 1)Actively anage 600k+ portfolio through application of [insert valuation technique(s)] 2)Beat market by x% over portfolio's life

ROFL you got the funniest picture ever! It should be like this though:

"I swear to God when I evolve I'm going to kill you all. *Splash *Splash "

XD

 

That's impressive! You should definitely put this on your resume with 2-3 bullet points under your "Finance Experience" section. I suggest specifically citing returns on your proudest investments and specifying what's in the portfolio.

Building on what MagicKarp wrote:

Finance Experience Personal Portfolio 1) Actively manage 600k+ portfolio of stocks, bonds, ETFs, and options through application of [insert valuation technique(s)] 2) Beat market by x% over portfolio's life 3) Achieved the following returns: NAH 25%, WUE 57%, AMC 45%

If you don't want to state $600k you can always write "six-figure".

Here are examples of various resumes with various "finance experiences" (everything from portfolio management to case study competitions) to help you build out the finance section of your resume:

http://www.break-into-banking.com/investment_banking_resume.html

-- www.break-into-banking.com Banking Resume Secrets http://www.break-into-banking.com/investment_banking_resume_secrets.html Advanced Interview Questions http://www.break-into-banking.com/investment_banking_interview_questions_advanced.html
 

I wouldn't say 6 figure...that sounds like 103k, I would say 600k+ numbers are always better than not having numbers and I dont know if numerating your positions with returns is the best way to utilize a bullet point either

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
New Yorker:
Yeah right you manage a 600k fund while being a full-time student. No proof.

99% of the stuff written here has no 'proof' to back it up...who cares

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
New Yorker:
Yeah right you manage a 600k fund while being a full-time student. No proof.
I mean how would they check, "LET ME SEE YOUR LOGS FROM THE PAST FISCAL YEAR."

Yeah, no. I think if they were skeptical they would ask more questions, rather than ask for physical proof. IE, you say you trade the ES, you better offer some fucking strategies up and know your shit.

"Salesmen and traders are wild, cunning, aboriginal creatures who advise money managers about deceiving their bosses and finding new strip bars; their favourite phrase is, "Fuck you." IBankers eat fruit. Salesmen and traders eat meat, preferably fried."
 

You use that fact as support, not an accomplishment. For example, if they ask you why s&t, somewhere in your answer you can tell them you have always had an interest in the capital markets/investing and started personally trading early in high school. You tie it in, to let them know you aren't just picking s&t for the hell of it, but that you have a sincere interest and have had some form of prior exposure. However, if you open that box, be prepared to provide sufficient answers regarding what strategies and why, etc. So don't put it on resume, but you can touch on it in the interviews.

 

If you are a junior or senior in college, the high school info on your resume should be limited to name of school and city/state, year graduated, gpa, and any leadership roles or major accomplishments. You do want to include some high school experience but this section should not be longer than your college section. I don't think the stock investing early in high school fits here. Here's a quick video of what you should have on your resume in terms of high school info and why - http://bit.ly/4yXM4H

You should create a mock portfolio and begin investing that. This wouldn't go on your resume either, but it would be more recent experience to talk about during interviews.

Gotta Mentor www.GottaMentor.com Connect to the Advice & People You Need to Achieve Your Career Goals

Gotta Mentor Connect to the Advice & People You Need to Achieve Your Career Goals
 

In short, there are bigger things on your resume than 'investing experience' that are necessary. Given your buy side experience already, (hopefully) a target school name behind you, good grades, and relevant interests/extracurriculars, you aren't in too shabby shape.

I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 

Yeah, second the above poster. The most important thing is get brand names (school + work). From my experience, full-timers look down on college kids' "investing experience" as they think its way more inferior to the type of work they do so the "investing experience" you learn in college is somewhat irrelevant. I would focus on fit + technicals if you have the brand names to support it.

 

You need to be able to demonstrate a strong interest in investing if you want to be on the buy side. Just think about it for a minute:

Given two identical resumes, yours and a guy just like you with but with investing experience, who would you choose? Given the PE internship, you don't absolutely need an investing line item, but do remember that your competition will have an investing experience line item.

 
Best Response

"You need to be able to demonstrate a strong interest in investing if you want to be on the buy side. Just think about it for a minute:

Given two identical resumes, yours and a guy just like you with but with investing experience, who would you choose? Given the PE internship, you don't absolutely need an investing line item, but do remember that your competition will have an investing experience line item."

jqbuyside, what do you mean by "investing experience?" Do you mean in terms of being involved in an investing club at school (this is something that I think is the most plausible and will try to do this semester), or do you mean actually investing your own money/doing your own research/ect? The concern with actually investing is:

1) They view it as it negative, as was mentioned in a previous post and validates some of the concerns that I had when talking to people 2) Where the hell did this kid get enough money to invest in a portfolio?

From these reasons I don't want to have a multiple line entry about investing my own money. I do think joining the investment club would be good. Did you have any other ideas when it came to "investing experience?"

Thanks for the replies so far - very helpful

 

It can go either way: "Wow, I am excited that you're interested in trading, I used to trade when I was your age" / "Oh so you trade stocks, please describe Modern Portfolio Theory. You currently hold only 10 stocks in your portfolio, can you explain why you are being negligent in terms of diversification?" etc..... It's not about gains, its all about knowing what you're doing when it comes to interviews. They're not expecting you to beat the market, they want you to explain your investment decisions, and what strategies you use to manage your portfolio.

 

I think if they see you can't back out what you are saying they will know you are lying. If I was an interviewer and you actually made me believe you have a trading account, more power to you for being able to talk about abstract things in such great lenght. THis comment is useless, but I had no sleep last night and I am jetlagged off my mind.


Remember, you will always be a salesman, no matter how fancy your title is. - My ex girlfriend

 

I disagree with Kyle, if you are trying to get a job in investments it would definitely make sense to add it to your resume. Especially as a student where you don't really have a lot of work experience, it shows interest in the industry. I don't think you need to include your returns, you just want to portray that you have taken the time to learn about investing.

 

With respect to the specific job you're applying for (by analyst I'm assuming IB on a non-S&T role), you should definitely include some information regarding your trading in your resume. I wouldn't go overboard on it, because it could deter some recruiters who may think you have a knack for trading instead of banking. During interviews, however, people will always ask questions about your trading, so be sure you can back up your experiences, tell a good story or two and also know how you woul allocate that proverbial $1million.

If you're applying to S&T or a prop shop, I would be more detailed in your resume about your trade experience. You don't need to shy away from the more technical language in for these folks. So make sure you tailor your resume by job type.

 

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