The ugly truth is the industry is dying. Countless veterans’ have told me the same thing. Despite a rip-roaring bull market, the professional landscape is scarred. The proliferation of passive investing and low-cost ETF’s has gutted the need for analysts and portfolio managers. Everybody has more-or-less the same access to information thanks to the Internet and if everything is just going to grind higher in financially engineered unison why bother with stock-picking or investing money in an actively managed fund? The ugly truth is that what limited roles remain in Wall Street are reserved for the ivy-league elite. You are born into it.
I tend to think that everything happens for a reason. Perhaps it’s for the best I didn’t end up in a concrete jungle, suffocated by smog and diseased from the rat-infested sewers. Montana is God’s country. The air is fresh and the water clean. Life is better here. I got a good job with a local bank that I’m excited about. Who knows where I’ll be in ten years but at least for now I’m on the right track.
There have been many interesting developments in markets. I’ll do my best to keep you updated with greater frequency from now on.