HELP: Asset Management Quant Equities Group
I have an interview coming up with a BB for their Asset Management division, specifically for their Quant. StrategiesEquities group. I have tried looking everywhere for more info but there isn't much (there isn't anything on their website).
I am completely new to Asset Management (applied to only S&T, IBD, and Research).
1) If they ask me why Asset Management what is a good answer? I don't want them to ask why I didn't go into the trading route (I have another interview with this firm for a trading role as well, but Asset Management is appealing too since I am interested in equities). I was planning on saying I am interested in the markets, but this is more suitable for trading.
2) On a general level; what does QUANT EQUITIES group involve (what they do on a daily basis, value to the firm as a whole?). Are they kind of like equity derivatives group on the trading group where their strategies/investments include hedged products and etc???
3) Does anyone have any experience in what an interview with this type of group is like and questions asked? How tech. does it get?
4) How am I able to find out more about this type of group? I want to find out more about what they do.
5) Will I meet with clients in this type of role? I want to emphasize good communication skills if so.
Basically I know nothing about this type of group and need to know as much as possible. Thanks in advance for the input.
sounds like a sales role they will probably be interested in how well you manage your assets
Quantitative equity management is just active equity investment management, but instead of picking stocks by using analysts recommendations, they pick stocks using quantitative models. Their fee structure is lower than normal active equities, but a big plus for the management is that it has a lot more capacity.
Most firms will have a few products that are managed by the quant equities group: US large cap, styles (value, growth) and global equities, small cap. Usually they have long/short 130/30 products but these haven't collected a lot of assets. Sometimes they run a market neutral product but these are more capacity constrained.
Depending on the group, it can be quite good (lots of innovation, collaboration, intellectually stimulating work) or very awful (scrubbing data). The skills generally are a facility with numbers (there's a lot of linear algebra that gets used in the portfolio construction side) and any kind of financial database or risk analysis stuff (Factset, Barra).
You probably won't have much client interaction if you are involved in research/PM (which tend to be the same thing in quant equities). In any asset management firm, they tend to use marketers or consultant relations people (called "client specialists" or something like that) and they bring along a more portfolio manager. There's usually a quarterly call with existing clients to go over performance, etc.
If you are on the client side (and are junior), it will probably be pitchbook creation and handling requests from existing clients.
If it is research/PM, then the most widely read book on quantitative investment management is "Active Portfolio Management" by Grinold and Kahn (who ran the quant group at BGI, now Blackrock) - most people have a copy of it on their desk. If it is GSAM, Bob Litterman turned out a similar book called "Modern Investment Management" (hasn't been very well received).
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