Monday
It is a hot summer week in Zurich, and I am lucky enough to be able to walk to work in the morning. This is the time, especially in the warm early sunlight, when I organise my thoughts and plan what I want to deliver this week. We receive a great deal of research, my inbox holds more than 600 unread emails by the time I reach my desk, and it is easy to get lost in emails or on the performance screens on Bloomberg. Instead, I try to stay focused on my priorities: portfolio moves, investment cases, marketing or client discussions.
Today I have a meeting with a company management team in the morning and a sell-side analyst in the afternoon. Maintaining proximity with portfolio companies is crucial and I often discuss strategy directly with the C-suites leading these businesses, this is my favourite part of the job. I also regularly call experts and brokers for the sectors I cover that demand deep technical knowledge such as information technology, clean tech, electrification, and the environmental transition themes.
Tuesday
Publication season has arrived, and I prepare my previews for the upcoming earnings, cross-checking against peers that have already published their results. After those checks, I have more confidence in one company, and I propose some trades: adding to that position, reducing one where question marks have gathered around the KPIs, and taking profit on a third where the valuation has run too high.
One of my mentors told me that markets are “the temple of regrets”, and I keep this phrase in mind because you never buy at the exact bottom and you never sell at the exact top. What I do instead is record my trades over several periods to analyse my hit ratio and to see whether my decisions and position sizing were good. This, to me, is the toughest part of the job: looking back at your own decisions honestly, and improving on them.
Like most of Zurich, I head down to the lake after work, where the water holds the heat of the day and the mountains stand on the far shore. Tonight I am starting a new book, Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata.
Wednesday
Today is our technology expert group meeting. Every two weeks we meet to share our outlook, discuss what has changed, and review what each of us has seen. We communicate on a daily basis anyway, but this meeting is where we challenge each other’s convictions and sharpen our forward-looking view. The last question is usually “what is your top pick and why”, delivered as a speed pitch, and it is good training for defending your conviction.
Tonight I have a networking event, Women in Finance. I attend regularly as the portfolio manager world is small, and the women within it are even fewer. These gatherings are about mutual support as much as they are fun!
Thursday
Language learning and personal development are important to me, and every Thursday I take a language class before work.
Today is research-intensive. I need to finish my investment case on a new technology company, including the full write-up, the valuation model with bull and bear scenarios, the peer analysis, the KPI checklist and the presentation. I am getting ready to present it to the other portfolio managers on the team and defend my convictions. It is critical to constantly bring in new ideas and review potential entrants to the portfolio, because you do not want to stay invested in a company in which you hold low conviction.
To get into a deep-focus mode for this kind of work, I listen to a LoFi, Ghibli piano or Yiruma playlist.
Friday
Today involves marketing and fund recurring tasks. I have to write the monthly performance commentary for the fund, and a press article on how water will become one of the critical challenges for AI, as data centre construction increasingly depends on cooling and water availability.
I go to a strength and cardio class at lunchtime. Even a quick workout gives me an extra boost of energy and helps me focus for the entire afternoon. Exercise is essential, especially in a high-stakes job with daily stress, so I aim to train three times per week and to walk a lot.
Tonight I am going to a gallery for a vernissage (private viewing). I really enjoy art, especially when paired with French red wine!
Weekend
Disconnecting from markets is easier said than done. Our holdings’ logos follow me around town, and high-end chip articles from Substack and Digitimes always find their way into my inbox.
But a summer weekend in Zurich means floating in the river, café hopping with friends and hiking in the mountains with my dog, a Shiba Inu.
