Brian Tomlinson, CMT is currently a Global Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Allianz Global Investors. Prior to joining AllianzGI, he spent 7 years at Pimco as a Portfolio Manager. He also worked at other companies well known to most of us, such as Merrill Lynch, Citi Bank, Dresdner Bank and IBM.

If you are one of those who think fixed income is boing, I can almost guarantee you that you will change your mind after listening to our conversation with Brian. Not only is he extremely good at what he does – and you will hear that when he walks us through the thought process that lead him to position his portfolio to take advantage of both a possible Brexit vote and the Trump election – but he is also very good at making seemingly difficult concepts, such as the effect of negative interest rates in society, very accessible to everyone.

“If you really want to make money, it is not the money that drives you, it is winning and the desire to be right” Brian Tomlinson

Now, to the show notes:

The importance of having an elevator speech [02:00]

How Brian’s grandfather influenced his decision to get into finance [03:20]

Brian’s early interest in currencies, interest rates and hedge funds [06:00]

Brian’s initial disappointment about what is taught at universities [06:35]

Brian’s view of the global financial markets [07:25]

How he deals with fear and pain in trading [08:20]

Trading in, out and around currency positions [11:50]

The importance of understanding correlations for traders and portfolio managers [13:00]

How does Brian deal with volatility in his portfolio [14:10]

What Brian looks at to gauge where future volatility is likely to go [16:00]

The importance of being a self-learner and having a mentor [18:30]

How to size trades in which you have a low conviction [22:10]

How he taught his son Texas Hold’em Poker when he was 6-years old as a way to learn probability [23:17]

How Brian positioned his portfolio to profit from a possible Brexit vote [25:00]

His experience on the day Trump was elected [28:45]

Brian’s advice for university students [31:00]

Brian’s view of Quantitative Easing and negative interest rates [33:15]

Brian’s view on the current US economic cycle [37:10]

Qualities he looks for when hiring people to work for him at Allianz Global Investors [40:40]

Brian’s thoughts on mentorship [43:00]

What makes fixed income exciting, even in a low interest rate environment [44:15]

His view on the CFA and other financial designations [48:30]

Brian’s career advice to young professionals [49:30]

Brian’s book recommendations [53:00]

The Information contained in this episode is as of November 2016.

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Stay tuned for our next episode, which will come out in two weeks, on January 26th!

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