A Day in the Life
Peggy, Equity Product Manager
7:00 am
As an equity product manager, I will interact with dozens of people today. Our group acts as a bridge connecting our equity investment professionals with our business developers and relationship managers as well as clients, prospects and consultants. I begin my day by catching up on global news and world markets. I also check email to get a sense for what my colleagues in Asia and Europe are working on before heading to the Wellington Morning Meeting at 8:30.
9:00 am
One of the ideas presented at today's Morning Meeting catches the attention of a portfolio manager, and we discuss how the strategy might affect the risk profile of her portfolio.
10:00 am
I take some time to finalize presentations I will be using during my upcoming trip to Asia. Some of the meetings are portfolio updates with clients, some are broad introductions to our higher alpha investment strategies with consultants, and one is a finals presentation to the investment committee of a major corporate pension plan.
10:30 am
I meet with a representative from a sophisticated endowment client who has asked Wellington Management to create an investment strategy to address a specific need. We have modeled potential portfolios and tested various scenarios to arrive at a style that both the client and portfolio manager feel comfortable with.
11:30 am
I review a quarterly portfolio analysis with a member of my product management team. His work reveals a moderate shift in the portfolio toward a less aggressive posture. We discuss the potential implications and prepare to present our findings to the portfolio manager tomorrow.
12:00 pm
I break to have lunch with a relationship manager who I recently met at a Wellington-sponsored MBA recruiting event. I enjoy learning about her life and interests.
1:00 pm
For the next few hours I will attend back-to-back client meetings to review the drivers behind recent portfolio performance and discuss the investment rationales for the stocks we hold. I make sure to explain the ways the portfolio manager is managing volatility.
4:00 pm
I convene a meeting with a portfolio management team to discuss the potential need to close an investment approach that could be approaching capacity limits with the upcoming funding of several sizeable new mandates. I begin a series of emails and phone discussions with several people who will be involved in taking the necessary steps to close the strategy to new investors.
5:30 pm
I use commuting time to review research reports and to read emails.
8:00 pm
I phone into a brief conference call with product management colleagues in Sydney and Hong Kong to help set parameters for a competitive analysis project the three of us are coordinating.
Though my day has been quite busy, I have enjoyed the projects and variety of people I've worked with.