We all know that Wall Street fund managers earn a lot of money. A top trader can earn millions or even tens of millions of dollars a year. Why are these people so popular? What is the difference between them and ordinary investors? The author of the following article interviewed a European investment company manager at a professional annual meeting to find out what type of people his company hired as portfolio managers.
He describes the following three characteristics of the types of people fund management companies hire as portfolio managers:
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First, the person must have the ability, willingness and discipline to follow the company’s rules, guidelines and methods. This is an important difference between individual investors and institutional investment managers. Individual investors must rely on self-discipline, and their weakness is the lack of discipline and the inability to consistently apply a trading system and investment method . The discipline of institutional investment managers is monitored by the company, and he either follows the rules or is fired. This is the driving force that keeps investment managers on track.
Second, wisdom is more important than pure intelligence. Extremely smart people are often self-righteous and think they are smarter than the market. However, a truly wise person is humble and willing to admit and accept that the market is right. The stock market is changing all the time, and the investment manager must capture market information in a timely manner and then take decisive action. He will not be angry with the market, and will not make a revengeful next trade because of a failed trade.
Third, an investment manager must have a “dual personality.” He is one kind of person in daily life and another kind of person in investment transactions, and the two have completely different emotional characteristics. He can accept two different selves and not let one affect the other. This ability is very rare and very precious.
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