Thinking of a career as an investment strategist? Here’s my story
Elyse Ausenbaugh, CFA is Head of Investment Strategy at J.P. Morgan Wealth Management in New York. In this article, she shares her personal career journey to becoming an investment strategist, and the skills she recommends aspiring strategists to develop.
Ausenbaugh shared her career experience as part of the CFA® Program Career Webinar Series, in which CFA® Charterholders detail their professional journeys, day-to-day responsibilities, and consider the skills and strategies needed to navigate a career in the financial sector.
Investment strategists are the public face of wealth and investment firms, often featured in media to explain market trends. They connect portfolio managers, analysts, and clients by translating complex insights into actionable advice, helping investors and advisors make informed decisions in dynamic markets.
Empowering clients with investment ideas
I lead our investment strategy team's coverage for J.P. Morgan's US wealth management business, which really spans the gamut in terms of the kinds of investors we cover from first-time, self-directed investors all the way up to ultra-high-net-worth family offices.
I collaborate with our asset class specialists and our CIO team to develop the firm’s investment views across asset classes. And then my core responsibility is to go out and spread the gospel, both in terms of educating our advisors on those top ideas and the narrative to back it up but also engaging and empowering our clients in terms of what it means for their individual financial situation.
What I love most about my role is probably the opportunity to meet any client or any investor where they are in terms of their sophistication and fluency in markets in order to educate them and empower them to figure out what to do with their money and how to achieve their financial goals.
Becoming a thought leader
I joined J.P. Morgan Private Bank as a banking Analyst after graduating from Northwestern University with an Economics degree. I have now spent my entire career at the firm. I came into my current role by way of growing up within J.P. Morgan's Investment Solutions organization.
I spent a handful of my early career years directing and producing our daily morning meeting, which is essentially oriented towards our thought leadership. It's very cross-discipline and focused on delivering those narratives that I mentioned I'm now a part of coming up with.
And so, it became the natural launchpad to then transition onto the investment strategy team when I was in the middle years of my career. I became a member of the Wealth Management Investments Business Management Team, supporting the Global Head of Investments and Global Head of Client Advice and Strategy. From there, I was promoted within the team to the position that I'm now in today, and it's been a wonderful journey.
What makes a good strategist?
When I step back and think about the consistencies across my team and all of my colleagues, the kind of common denominators are the facts that everyone has a very high level of intellectual curiosity that also tends to be interdisciplinary in nature. And they have a genuine and very vibrant passion for the subject matter.
I often talk to potential candidates who are attracted to the investment strategy role because of the prestige or the perceived glamor of it. But then when you really drill down and explore whether they care about the subject matter, whether they do the work day-to-day or think about it when they're walking their dog, oftentimes that's where the skillset tends to fall short.
I think that interest, first and foremost, is one of the key gateways to becoming an investment strategist. And then in terms of curiosity, I think it also has to be accompanied by humility. This is all about coming up with views, speaking to those views with conviction, but then understanding if and when you might need to adjust those views as the facts on the ground change.
I think a good investment strategy team and strategist must have that willingness and flexibility to take things as they come and adapt accordingly.
My advice to aspiring investment strategists
I think having the CFA® charter definitely helps those who want to become an Investment Strategist. You are going to develop a fundamental macro and micro skillset by studying the curriculum. I loved Level III of the CFA Program because of the way that it forced me to apply concepts to actual case studies. If you are pursuing your charter right now and you're still studying for it, I would highly encourage you to think through how you can actually apply what you're learning to the real world, because passing a test is obviously very different than doing it in practice.
But beyond that, I’d really encourage you to build your personal brand and become a known presence among people in investment strategy roles or adjacent fields. And by that, I don’t just mean having casual networking coffee chats. I mean sitting down with them, asking thoughtful questions about the markets, sharing your own views, and starting to show that you have the propensity and the capacity to really do the job that it is you're trying to pursue.
It is also important to know yourself, the kind of value that you can bring to a franchise, and be open and honest about the things that you want to work on.
Conclusion
Being a public-facing role, an investment strategist needs to be a good communicator. My final piece of advice is don’t try to be someone you aren’t or speak in a way that isn't natural to you. I think you will be much more compelling, you'll feel much more confident, if you speak and communicate and present as exactly who you are. Just lean on the confidence of knowing what you know and then deliver it with conviction.
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