What is an asset manager?

cian81

What does an asset manager do from day-to-day? What skills nad attributes are need to be successful?

Cian,
I think you mean a Fund Manager - asset managers are usually firms that will mange the investments of institutions such as Pension Funds. Fund Managers do the work.

Theres some infor here:
http://www.business.com/directory/financial_services/asset_management/

Don't think that there is any 'set' skillset apart from good quant and analysis skills, and I would doubt that you could start in this area directly, you would prob have to work on a trading floor or Investment bank to cut your teeth. Then move in to Asset Management.

hmmm

Good finance degree for one. It depends - fund management encompasses about 30 different jobs.

Not really - plenty of engineers get in.

I know a Fundy who got did classics in Oxford!

Finance degrees are not necessary for financial jobs... important thing to get a good degree, the subject is immaterial

dunkamania

Asset managment is a very broad term encompassing many roles,from Property Investment Manager to equity portfolio manager to cfd day trader to FX trader etc.

Obviously,different roles require different skills,some roles are heavily maths based,some arent at all.The nature of the roles vary from company to company,for example,equity portfolio managers may be mostly sales based in some firms while the same role in other firms could be heavily analytical.

Dublin has very limited Asset Management employment oppurtunities.
More than likely you will have to settle for a a support/back office role unless you are a very high callibre candidate or have good connections.
For the most part these are dead end jobs with very limited opportunites to move into a front office role.

A financial degree is a good start,the CFA qualification is the standard for investment professionals.

onedmc

In general in the markets (Wall Street, the City etc); asset management is seen as the management (accounting) aspect of the investment business.

As opposed to

Fund Managers who actually decide on what to invest in.
and Traders who actually buy on the instruction of the Fund manager .

The asset manager will let the fund manager know how much he has to spend within the bounds set out (in a prospectus, persion board etc). The trader does it and informs everone; and the assest manager then adds up what happened and works how much profit/loss is delivered and the cycle continues.

And there are loads of other related role, such as trustees, custody and banking.

In less sophisticate financial (say small property) circles the Asset Manager role may vary and the related roles have different names.