Fund Manager

#4 07-10-2003, 06:35 AM

Tad Borek <borekfm[at]pacbell.net> wrote in message news:<PP0Pa.516$UN3.58870935[at]newssvr13.news.prodigy.com> ...
- quote -

> darkness wrote:
> > You will find that many of the great investors had very diverse
> > backgrounds (eg Dr. Mark Mobius of Templeton has a Phd, I think, in
> > political science). But while diversity is undoubtedly an asset in
> > creating a great investor, it is not necessarily an asset in terms of
> > getting a job in that field. An MBA in finance is not a bad
> > signalling device.
> It also seems to line you up for the right kinds of job interviews, via
> on-campus recruiting. It's an expensive form of networking, but pretty
> effective as long as the job market isn't in the pits at graduation.
> Agree though that there's a difference between job-obtaining skills and
> money-management skills. IMO common sense, skepticism, and a sense of
> value go farther than a full grasp of the (somewhat useless) capital
> asset pricing model.

There is a common language that everyone in the business seems to
share, even if they never use the CAPM to price stocks: the CFA from
what I have seen of the syllabus and heard from those who took it
seems to cover this. I suspect the CAPM was a short form, developed
in a time when cheap and powerful computers were just not available so
it was not possible to crunch the data available, almost real-time.

I entirely agree with you that a great investor has loads of common
sense and a strong notion of value: the hardest thing is to be selling
when others are still buying, sitting on the sidelines when stocks are
still going up, and buying when everyone else is saying 'we're
doomed'. For example, I was just reading Pimco's website for some
insight into the thoughts of superior bond investors.

The Economist this week has a survey of the fund management industry
which is quite interesting.

#3 07-09-2003, 10:40 PM

darkness wrote:
- quote -

> You will find that many of the great investors had very diverse
> backgrounds (eg Dr. Mark Mobius of Templeton has a Phd, I think, in
> political science). But while diversity is undoubtedly an asset in
> creating a great investor, it is not necessarily an asset in terms of
> getting a job in that field. An MBA in finance is not a bad
> signalling device.

It also seems to line you up for the right kinds of job interviews, via
on-campus recruiting. It's an expensive form of networking, but pretty
effective as long as the job market isn't in the pits at graduation.

Agree though that there's a difference between job-obtaining skills and
money-management skills. IMO common sense, skepticism, and a sense of
value go farther than a full grasp of the (somewhat useless) capital
asset pricing model.

-Tad

#2 07-09-2003, 09:20 PM

ttroberts[at]aol.com (TTRoberts) wrote in message news:<20030709013848.18559.00000071[at]mb-m20.aol.com> ...
- quote -

> bhui02[at]netscape.net (Ben), you asked:
> << <I> I was wondering if someone can share with me, what does it take to be
> a money manager / Fund manager from an academic stand point.
> What kind of classes in Finance, Accounting and Statistics are necessary?
> Can you share some of your thoughts and recommend some textbooks on
> them? Thanks so much in advance.</i> > > A PhD in economics would be a good thing to have to get such position as a Fund
> Manager. I know some fund managers and they have PhD's that was key to getting
> their jobs. Managing money/investments isn't so much about Finance,
> Accounting or Statistics . . .it more to do with understanding economics which
> is far less easy to quantify than these other subjects.

Interestingly, I know of no fund manager over here (UK) with that
background. Fund management firms employ economists, but practically
never to run money. Usual backgrounds are either qualified
accountants (CPA you would call it) or a professional qualification
like CFA.

#1 07-09-2003, 03:55 PM

Ben wrote:
- quote -

> I was wondering if someone can share with me, what does it take to be
> a money manager / Fund manager from an academic stand point.
> What kind of classes in Finance, Accounting and Statistics are
> necessary?
> Can you share some of your thoughts and recommend some textbooks on
> them? Thanks so much in advance.

If you're asking "what education does it take to be hired as a money
manager" then I think you'll find a lot of finance MBAs. Not that it's
required, but I think it's the most common degree. Undergrad degree
doesn't seem to matter much but getting comfortable with math is a good
idea, and if you can cover the core subjects you mentioned, as well as
econ and calculus, all the better. And of course start reading the Wall
St Journal, every day (knowing the stories is at least as important as
knowing the numbers).

If you're just curious about the curriculum or want to self-study with
typical textbooks, look through a b-school course catalog for a finance
program. For the books, go to a local university and check out the ones
they use - both for the intro-level and the b-school level courses.
There are a lot of titles out there in these subjects and any
comprehensive intro-level text is probably as good as the next.

If you want to invest in one really dense, comprehensive book I'd
recommend "Investments" by Sharpe, Alexander, Bailey. But only after
getting through the Finance/acctg/econ/calculus/stats-101 level stuff
because otherwise it'll be a lot of gibberish.

-Tad

07-09-2003, 09:00 AM

bhui02[at]netscape.net (Ben), you asked:

<< <I> I was wondering if someone can share with me, what does it take to be
a money manager / Fund manager from an academic stand point.

What kind of classes in Finance, Accounting and Statistics are necessary?
Can you share some of your thoughts and recommend some textbooks on
them? Thanks so much in advance.</i> >
A PhD in economics would be a good thing to have to get such position as a Fund
Manager. I know some fund managers and they have PhD's that was key to getting
their jobs. Managing money/investments isn't so much about Finance,
Accounting or Statistics . . .it more to do with understanding economics which
is far less easy to quantify than these other subjects.

#-1 07-09-2003, 02:45 AM

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone can share with me, what does it take to be
a money manager / Fund manager from an academic stand point.

What kind of classes in Finance, Accounting and Statistics are
necessary?
Can you share some of your thoughts and recommend some textbooks on
them? Thanks so much in advance.

Ben

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