I earned my Charter recently and am considering trying to break into the Asset Management industry (currently working Sell Side doing FX Sales & Trading). I believe that it would be both an interesting / stimulating career as well as being a place where I can put to use some of the new knowledge I have gained by completing the program.
I was wondering what everyone’s opinions were about trying to break into asset management current day? Based on many industry reports I’ve read about AI and automation it seems like many are predicting large headcount contractions in the industry overall (I’m sure not evenly spread amongst different specializations / roles but I digress).
Does anyone have a view on future outlook of the industry? I am doing some networking amongst pension funds / mutual fund companies but these in particular seem like they would be more ripe for disruption and headcount reduction vs say Alternative asset managers.
I’m beginning to even think maybe it’s better to try and move into a more finance / business type role at a fintech company where I would still be able to use some of the knowledge from the program but develope a more widely applicable skillset.
Would love to hear people’s general thoughts, thanks!
Just do what you like man, but yeah smaller mutual funds are dying, just last week State Street cut bunch of their ETFs to just 3 basis pts in management fees. Alternative funds are less at risk and successful ones have been getting more assets this year. If you are generally interested in the markets and investing you will be miserable else where that’s not sell/buy side. Business/Finance type roles at Fintech places can be interesting and maybe more stable? You will be ok if you can prove your worth and add value.
Just do what you like man, but yeah smaller mutual funds are dying, just last week State Street cut bunch of their ETFs to just 3 basis pts in management fees. Alternative funds are less at risk and successful ones have been getting more assets this year. If you are generally interested in the markets and investing you will be miserable else where that’s not sell/buy side. Business/Finance type roles at Fintech places can be interesting and maybe more stable? You will be ok if you can prove your worth and add value.
recently finished reading Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future. I agree with with where the automations is going but have a more sanguine picture for our future. In his earlier books, he talks about driverless cars and proliferation of machines in complex manufacturing process and etc…At the time, many naysayers said he was just writing a sci-fi only to realize that his predictions actually came earlier.
The new book basically says we are toast, 90% of us are. I guess you gotta look at Blackrock - fired 400 PMs and analysts in their team and replaced with a couple dozen analysts/programmers. Why pay analysts $160k base to for their summaries of 200-page 10K and 10Q and excel model, which is all based on a template…when an AI can do it in 1 minute…The new person there can simply tweak couple assumptions and parameters here and there and viola the report is done!
I’d look at possibly trying to get into a robo advisor company, something like wealthsimple or perhaps a lending based company, there are a lot of these types of startups in the area.
downside of this would be that many don’t have much application of the curriculum or much market analysis, which is something I’d like to try and apply after going through the entire program.
This is one of the reasons why I left public equity and joined venture fund…Similar yes, but hard to automate when you’re looking to invest in a private company with limited…everything…
haha…I actually didn’t say what I think we would see in the future…I merely summarized what had already happened - Blackrock case - and what might happen according to the book.
