Careers in Finance with Wim Steemers
Wim Steemers is currently a Portfolio Manager at AL Capital and the Founder, CIO & Portfolio Manager of Rosevalley Advisory. Wim is an experienced portfolio manager and buy-side equity analyst with a history of strong alpha generation. He has also developed a proprietary Behavioral Finance portfolio. As a senior research analyst, Wim has particular experience in Financial Sector stocks (Banks, Insurance, and Diversified Financials) and at firms such as Macquarie Funds Group and AllianceBernstein.
Some of the valuable insights Wim shared:
- Yes, there will be periods where things go one way and periods where things go another way. In the end, nothing ever changes the fundamental forces of nature.
- Set your goals a little bit more realistically when you start. You may think your job is to get every call right. No, that’s not your job. Your job is to get more right than wrong. And be prepared to get it wrong, because that will happen. That’s part of the job. If you never get it wrong, then you’re probably not working hard and often enough, leaving money on the table.
- When starting your career, understand what the two or three questions that drive the investment case are. Over time you will be able to simplify your models. There’s a rite of passage that you need to go through before you can reach the maturity that allows you to know what to drop and what to keep.
- When searching for a job, ask yourself what kind of person you are, and then tailor your job search accordingly. Find out about the places that you’re applying to and how things work there and if it aligns with the kind of person you are.
- A career on the sell-side doesn’t look very promising right now. The buy-side has been struggling for the last 10 years or so, but it’s getting a bit more optimistic. The likelihood that active managers are going to prove their worth over the next 10 years is much higher.
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