| Day in the Life: Richard Dunn head of equity strategy with Oppenheim Investment Managers |
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| Richard Dunn, head of equity strategy with Oppenheim Investment Managers, devours daily the latest reports from the financial media, as his role directing the €1.7 billion fund manager’s equity portfolio involves keeping up to date on stock movements all over the world. |
6.10am: Out of bed, shave and shower. Breakfast in front of the TV. Just like every other day I’ve tuned into CNBC to catch the overnight market headlines and big company news.
6.50am: Leave the house to catch the train to the IFSC. Never get a seat so I look for an empty space where I can spread my elbows and read, usually a newspaper or some reports. | | Richard Dunn |
7.45am: Catch-up on the Asian markets. We have numerous equity investments in Japan and Far East Asia so I’m looking for any news on all of them. This is where our Bloomberg system comes in handy, as we get non-stop news updates on each company. Any disappointing developments trigger a review process that could take a couple of hours. Today it appears to be all good news. I take a moment to make a checklist of tasks to be performed during the day, and scan the list of 50 new e-mails for urgent items.
8.00am: Phones start ringing, mainly our key institutional equity brokers relaying market and company news as the Asian markets close and Europe opens.
8.30am: Team discussions normally start around this time. Stock news is passed around and new ideas are proposed. We operate in an open plan so thoughts and ideas flow freely. A stock in Europe is causing us some concerns. The company announced higher than expected costs
10:00am: As this is Monday, the team gets together for our formal weekly investment meeting. All key investment issues are covered, starting with global equity strategy. We start with a discussion on the overall equity markets, i.e. the macro picture, the valuation of the market, and any technical developments. A similar exercise is done for the key geographic regions and sectors. These days Japan and the Energy Sector are discussed at length, and we decide we need greater exposure to both. This meeting is key, as it provides a framework for the team for the rest of the week.
11:30am: Meeting with the CEO of a European energy company. He’s in to give an update on his company’s results and strategy. As we are shareholders, he is more than happy to answer a long list of questions. Today, we like what we hear. Over the course of the year, we try to meet as many companies as we can, as we find it a useful exercise for, at a minimum, gaining insight into what’s going on in the industry.
12:30pm: Out with marketing to meet a prospective client. It is just around the corner within the IFSC so we walk. We present to a group of eight pension trustees, stressing the firm’s outstanding long-term performance record and our unique investment process. In a reversal of my 11:30 meeting I spend half of the meeting answering questions.
1.30pm: Lunch at the desk. A group of us discuss some new stock ideas and a debate ensues. These stocks have already passed through our screening system so they are serious candidates for the portfolios. As there are thousands of stocks to choose from in the global equity market, it is critical that the vast universe is narrowed down as much as possible, leaving only the most attractive candidates for further research.
2:30pm: The US market opens and news comes out about some of our holdings. Phones are busy as we look for updates from our investment contacts. One company announces a transaction which is not consistent with the message we got from the CEO when he presented to us a month earlier. I pick up to phone to clarify the situation with the company.
3:00pm: Meeting with a global telecommunications analyst from one of the major brokerage houses. It is a sector that we have not liked and he says nothing that changes our opinion.
As this is the last formal meeting of the day, his exit allows my attention to shift to some of the stocks on our watch list. Some have been on it for a while, new ones have been added today. The relative quiet at this time of the day provides the opportunity to get more familiar with these companies, by reviewing stock research, reading as much as I can about them, and perusing financial statements. There is a lot to look at, and I set aside some reports to read on the train, but it is another key part of the never-ending process of ensuring that the best investment ideas are in the portfolios at all times.
Dinner is with the family as a rule. Once fed, the kids want to play, especially the 2 year old.
9.00pm: The kids are in bed and CNBC comes back on the TV, much to the chagrin of my wife. She grabs the remote after 15 minutes. |
Richard Dunn, head of equity strategy with Oppenheim Investment Managers
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| Article appeared in the February 2006 issue.
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