Q&A - Junior PM, Systematic Investing, Institutional Multi-Asset (3y)
I'm a long time lurker and reader of the forums and they've helped me considerably through my UG and into the role.
Background:
Second generation immigrant - quite standard, parents have a corner store and no education, state-schooled throughout. No-one in family in the industry, first heard about it through a school run stock picking competition. Grades were great until I went and screwed up a Cambridge offer for NatSci by taking my eye of the prize. Spent a year after A-levels working in retail/fast food in order to save money to pay for uni-halls rent etc. Ended up studying Physics at a decent but mid-tier university (Southampton/Surrey/Manchester/Cardiff type). Started exploring careers in the gap year and had eye set on S&T. Spent most of Uni first/second years focused on recruitment vs. grades (though still maintained a decent 2.1). Started taking any decent internship/experience I could get (first summer spent in Compliance), networked my way into a few weeks on a trading desk shadowing. Eventually did a placement year in quant research at a large AM, really enjoyed that and decided to focus efforts into AM recruitment, multi-asset.
Analyst role out of uni was working on a macro fund (within a large AM) in investment strategy and portfolio construction, I have no moved to a Junior PM role in systematic multi-asset with some TAA responsibilities at a large AM.
The team and culture at my current shop is the main reason I moved from my analyst role out of university (and wont't lie the comp bump as well), great reputation in the market, humble and good track-records. I was frustrated in the previous role for various reasons.
In my current role I split my time 25/25/25/25 - Research (reading/testing ideas), Coding, Running the portfolios (re balancing/cash/reg/ops type work) and Product Development. I primarily focus on the 'classic' multi-asset mandates, be it risk-targeted, premia etc. I am also heavily involved in designing and implementing my shops graduate/internship programs with HR.
Eventual goal is to get to a HF or a boutique AM. We'll see how it goes!
Happy to take any questions.
if you're a PM, then what exactly do the quant researchers do?
What happens if the quant researchers and you have different opinions on a trade?
Are you trading in liquid markets only? What about options, EM, etc?
What does your boss do compared to you?
For your coding, do you just play around with signals or backtesting portfolio optimization stuff?
Are you constrained by vol or some index?
What's the difference between AM systematic macro vs HF systematic macro?
AM stuff is generally more long only and long biased RP and GTAA stuff. On the HF side you have everything from traditional CTA and TP which have been refitted a bit with new signals through to sophisticated sys macro running faster signals or RV trades more akin to disc macro.
You can guess which perform better.
I mean in theory, HF style should do better, but not sure in practice.
Do you have any advice for breaking into quant research for a tier 1 university STEM graduate? I have strong ibd internships and will be at a buyside shop this summer but want to move over to the quant side rather than fundamental. Do you have any advice on where best to look, what comp level I can expect and what the trajectory is like?
Can you code? Can you code well? Do you have any stats knowledge?
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