Hi guys! Hoping to get some insight on what the portfolio management Group is like at Dimensional Fund Advisors.
My main concern is their investment philosophy. They base investment decisions on academic research and tend to stick more towards the passive side. If I want to be an active manager one day, would it be a bad choice to start out at Dimensional Fund Advisors?
I've connected very well with the people, but I don't want to start my career in the wrong direction. Thoughts?
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DFA thinks they beat the [passive index] benchmarks. So far I don't see reason to dispute this: a slight but definable edge (Google them and read some discussions people have had about them), which is tough to get. What do you think you have that could benefit them?
Not sure how I can benefit them lol, but I was just wondering if this would be a good place to start a career given my long-term goals. I currently have the opportunity to work for them.
Disclaimer: I don't work there, but here is my impression of them:
If you're asking about doing fundamental stock research then DFA isn't the place for you. Like you said they do emphasize the academic research and I believe the DFA portfolio management group is effectively allocating the trades to the right portfolios.. The themes are determined at the top which is informed through quantitatively / macro driven macro teams and then I think a lot of the process is automated and the traders and PMs are primarily responsible for execution. You won't be doing financial statement analysis on single stocks - you might be looking at how aggregate company financials look and how that might influence how you invest. That being said, it is a different form of active management - one that is theory driven and has a lot of optimization and macro research implemented.
Good for maybe getting a look at Booth and not necessarily a bad place to start a career, but not direct experience for being a fundamental analyst.
100% can back this comment. Stay away from Dimensional.
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