Is there a career for me in this field?
Here is my story. I am in my late 30s. I worked the last 15 years as a data analyst in a scientific field and was recently laid off. I could find work in the same field if I wanted to but thought this might be an opportune time to consider a career change to something I am truly passionate about - investing.
Over the past 15 years I have also actively managed my own investments. My portfolio is now large enough that it is becoming worthwhile to dedicate myself full time to managing it. I trade stocks and options (long and short, on domestic and foreign exchanges). My return in 2011 was over 200% and my return in 2012 YTD is over 20%.
My investment career has been a gradual learning experience. I have no education in finance and for the first several years I was basically investing blind and lost money every year. I started reading Lynch, Buffet, Fisher, Graham, etc, and my returns improved. The last several years I have focused on what I know best and all my experience seems to be paying off as I have been handily outperforming the markets. I went from not knowing how to read an earnings statement to being able to build my own financial models for the companies I invest in. That gives me confidence that my performance of recent years is the truer reflection of my ability.
I have maintained a blog for the past couple of years where I post my trades in real-time and write in-depth reports on my analysis. I have made some contact with professional fund managers through my blog and received praise from them for my work.
So that brings me back to my original question. Is there a career for me in this field? With no formal education in finance do I even have a chance at a job? I have read some of the job postings for traders and am not interested in anything where I have to produce quarterly results - that is not my investment style. Is the only answer to start my own fund? I have read up on this and the process seems straight-forward enough, but honestly I do not have much of a network and am not sure how I would go about finding people to invest in my fund. I will broach the topic with some of the contacts I have made through my blog, but I discovered this forum and thought I might solicit some ideas here first.
What is your 5 year record? It's easy to have a great year (and, inversely, to lose everything) when options become involved because they give you such enormous leverage. But if you can truly generate that kind of alpha on a regular basis, wouldn't it make sense to just continue to compound your portfolio?
Also, have you considered getting an MBA? The columbia value program might make sense.
Quis sint tenetur dolores rem. Sit dolores possimus aut recusandae. Voluptatem tenetur inventore explicabo officia. Accusantium quis laboriosam tenetur quasi optio cum aspernatur. Nihil odit quia aspernatur consequatur.
Non dolor accusantium pariatur est. Eligendi modi ad quibusdam cum voluptatem maiores dolore. Est perspiciatis architecto nostrum sed.
Impedit est ea quia repellat mollitia. At et consequatur consequatur qui nisi sunt facere.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...