Careers
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A day in the life of David

Put very simply, I invest money for people and try to make them more money from their investments. I usually deal with institutional investors and work with commodities, energy, industrial metals, grain, precious metals and livestock. Everything from basic to luxury items. One day it might be the right time to buy or sell platinum and the next, pigs.

Name
David

I’m constantly working with international colleagues and clients and I love the variety my role provides.

Role
Senior Portfolio Manager

Works in
Barclays Global Investors

Location
San Francisco, US

My working day

My clients are based all over the world, excluding Europe which is covered by another BGI team. I’m constantly working with international colleagues and clients and I love the variety my role provides – in terms of the diversity of both the people and the commodities I work with.

In the morning, 09:00 to 11:00
I get into the office at about 07:30 to check the markets and catch up on the morning’s news. I’ll also get started on some client work – when a potential client is considering partnering with BGI for their investments they usually have a long list of questions about our strategy, performance and team, and it’s my responsibility to answer those.

Around lunch, 11:00 to 14:00
In a typical morning, BGI Sales Officers will often want me to speak with potential investors to discuss commodity investments and talk through what’s going on in the current markets. I’ll also describe the issues relating to tax, and any legal and structural points that the investor needs to be made aware of.

Early afternoon, 14:00 to 17:00
Commodities contracts expire on a regular basis so it’s important I make time for maintenance on my clients’ portfolios to ensure they retain proper exposure in the right markets. I’ll also often spend some time putting together potential trades to deal with the following morning.

End of the day, 17:00 to 18:00
My colleagues and clients in Australia and Japan are just starting work at this time of day so this is when I’ll deal with their queries over the phone. I also make sure I catch up with my direct report every day – we work very closely together. I usually head home about 18:30 after a long, but interesting day.

My career at Barclays

I joined BGI in August 2000. At the time the company only had a commodities offering in Europe. I suggested there would be an opportunity to deal with commodity investments in the US too and that became my job. It soon grew to include different jurisdictions all over the world and in the last three years I’ve had the opportunity to visit Asia, the Middle East and Australia on business.

How I started out

Prior to joining BGI I worked for fashion retailer Gap, dealing with corporate finance. I completed an MBA at Wharton School of Business, Pennysylvania, US, and before that I worked at Bank of America in Foreign Exchange Operations. I graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a Bachelors degree in Economics and have a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Virginia, US.