A Day in the Life
Scott, Fixed Income Portfolio Manager
My day really begins on the morning train, where I catch up on emails on my BlackBerry and read through The Wall Street Journal.
7:00 am
I go over the prior day's trades to reconcile trading levels and account positioning. Then I prepare for any account cash flows for the day, setting up trades where appropriate. I review market quotes to get a sense for where trading levels are for the corporate bond market in cash bonds and credit derivatives.
8:30 am
I participate in our firm's Morning Meeting, a daily dialogue among our portfolio managers and analysts, to see if there are any actionable trade ideas or comments that I need to follow up on with the analysts.
9:00 am
I spend time reviewing recent research from our fixed income and equity analysts. As a fixed income corporate bond portfolio manager, I help run some fairly diversified portfolios and invest in companies that do business all over the world. This means I follow many different credits and read a lot of research on individual companies and sectors, while also paying close attention to economic strategy.
10:30 am
One of the things that makes my role so interesting is that what happens each day is often unpredictable and can be driven by new bond issues in the market, along with a variety of other factors. If there is a new issue, as there is today, I spend time with our analysts deciding whether or not to participate in it. Some days there can be five or more new issue corporate bond deals, each of which I will need to consider.
1:00 pm
I sometimes attend meetings with senior management from companies to get a deeper understanding of their business outlook. The meeting I attend today helps me gauge where one company's focus is during these volatile times in the capital markets, and how they are managing their risk positions as well as what opportunities they see in the market.
We regularly have these opportunities to meet with management teams and the information I come away with helps me formulate my investment decisions. On days we don't have company meetings, we may host credit strategists to hear their views on the markets.
4:00 pm
I continue to research several companies and sectors in search of ideas that will help make our clients money. Fortunately, we have great analysts at Wellington Management, who I rely on to help me make sound investment decisions. Depending on the day, I may also spend part of the afternoon participating in client calls or meetings to discuss performance and our market outlook.