The financial industry, once known as the "golden rice bowl," is gradually showing signs of fatigue, and fund managers who were once considered the top are also facing severe challenges.

Recently, Dongwu Fund announced a change in fund managers for four fund products, which involved job adjustments for two current fund managers, namely Ding Ge and Wang Rui.

It is not surprising to change fund managers, but this time it has attracted attention because the two fund managers mentioned in the announcement that they will be transferred to research positions after resigning from the product.

According to the announcement, both fund managers are serving as fund managers for the first time and have not exceeded three years of management experience. Among them, Ding Ge holds a Master's degree in Political Economy from Peking University. After the job transfer, Ding Ge and Wang Rui will respectively serve as senior industry researchers and industry researchers. In terms of performance, during the relatively short management cycle, both fund managers did not perform well during their tenure, with both products experiencing losses exceeding 50% during their tenure.

Generally speaking, the promotion path for investment research in fund companies is relatively clear, with those who excel in research turning to investment and those who excel in investment turning to management. However, in recent times, it is not uncommon to switch back from a fund manager position to a research position.

A fund manager from a Shanghai fund company told Time Finance, "My company also has a similar situation, and job adjustments are based on performance."

In response to this, Dongwu Fund stated to Time Finance that "the reasons for making the above adjustments are twofold: firstly, the related products have performed poorly in the past, and based on a responsible attitude towards the investors and products, the company needs to actively respond and make adjustments; secondly, from the perspective of internal assessment, combined with the actual results of long-term and short-term assessments of various fund managers, the above adjustments are made."

High education equals good performance?

The announcement of Dongwu Fund has become popular, revealing the other side of the buyer's "food chain" in the financial industry.

On June 22nd, the two fund managers who stepped down in the announcement of the change of fund managers at Dongwu Fund were Ding Ge and Wang Rui. According to information from Tiantian Fund, Ding Ge holds a Master's degree in Political Economy from Peking University and has previously served as a researcher at Bank of China Fund. In September 2020, he joined Dongwu Fund as a dedicated account investment manager, and before stepping down, he managed Dongwu Alpha Flexible Allocation Hybrid and Dongwu New Economy Hybrid.

The tenure of Ding Ge's two products is both over 2 years, and the tenure period is not long, but the job returns are not ideal. In terms of A-class shares, the tenure of Dongwu Alpha Flexible Configuration Hybrid and Dongwu New Economy Hybrid decreased by 53.50% and 69.04%, respectively.

After changing the fund manager, Xu Man will take over the management of the above two products from Dingo. Xu Man is also serving as a fund manager for the first time. He holds a Master's degree in Applied Economics from Tsinghua University and joined Dongwu Fund Management as a Senior Industry Researcher in March 2022. The first products he took over were Dongwu Alpha Flexible Allocation Hybrid and Dongwu New Economy Hybrid. These two funds are not large in scale, and as of the end of the first quarter, the total size of both products (A/C shares) has not exceeded 100 million yuan.

Wang Rui is a quantitative fund manager, and his two former funds are Dongwu Anying Quantitative Hybrid and Dongwu Anxiang Quantitative Hybrid, both of which have been in office for over a year. It is worth noting that there is a huge performance gap between these two funds. During Wang Rui's tenure, based on A shares, Dongwu Anying's quantitative mix fell by 14.19%, while Dongwu Anxiang's quantitative mix fell by 55.47%.

Times Finance found in the first quarter report of Dongwu Anying Quantitative Hybrid that its investment strategy is top-down allocation, emphasizing investment discipline and avoiding risks or losses caused by arbitrary investments; By using a quantitative model of the company, analyze the expected risks and returns of the stock market, bond market, and currency market, determine the asset allocation ratio, and dynamically optimize management.

In the first quarter report of Dongwu Anxiang Quantitative Mixing, it is emphasized that "this fund mainly adopts a 'top-down' investment approach for asset and industry allocation, and uses quantitative models to control portfolio drawdowns and optimize the fund's risk return structure. On the one hand, this fund refers to quantitative timing indicators for investment trading such as opening positions and stop losses in stock portfolios, and on the other hand, it uses industry models and multi factor stock selection models for diversified investment, in order to bring stable returns to investors."

Although named a quantitative fund, from the positions of the two funds, it reflects a more obvious characteristic of concentrated shareholding.

As of the end of the first quarter of this year, the top ten heavy holdings of Dongwu Anxiang Quantitative Mixed Fund were concentrated in the new energy sector, with a high degree of shareholding concentration. The total holdings of the top ten were as high as 80.92%, significantly exceeding the holdings concentration of ordinary quantitative funds. Meanwhile, the top ten holdings of Dongwu Anying Quantitative Hybrid are concentrated in large market capitalization white horses and blue chips, with diversified allocation industries. The top ten heavy holdings account for 57.91% of the total. Perhaps the reason for the significant difference in performance between the two products is due to the heavy position allocation.

Wang Rui graduated from Wuhan University of Science and Technology with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Technology. He has served as a researcher at Zhongtai Securities and an investment manager assistant at Shanghai Huazhong Asset Management Co., Ltd. He joined Dongwu Fund in August 2020 and began working as a fund manager in January 2023.

Next stop for fund manager career

Several fund managers in the industry have told Time Finance that poor performance is the primary reason for stepping down as a product.

"Our company also has fund managers who are researchers due to poor performance. In the past, they may change products, but recently they have been directly transferred without a negotiation process," a fund manager in Shanghai told Time Finance.

In the past, the promotion path for investment research and investment in the industry was relatively clear, and achieving performance was the main channel for improvement. In the past, many researchers were promoted to fund managers due to their strong research abilities, and there were also many fund managers who were promoted to company management due to outstanding management performance. The three-year retreat of the fund market has left many practitioners with no hope for this "traditional" promotion path.

A fund manager from a fund company in Shenzhen told Times Finance, "Indeed, some fund managers have resigned due to excessive pressure. Public funds face significant management pressure every year, and their rankings vary across different stages. If the market experiences a long downturn, it can be very uncomfortable."

It is obvious that in a continuously declining market, having rich market experience is not a "talisman" for fund managers, but even more so for "novice" fund managers. In fact, it is not uncommon in the industry to transfer fund managers back to the research department, and market downturn cycles are even more common.

Since last year, several institutions such as Haitong Asset Management and Guoyuan Securities have transferred fund managers to research positions. Earlier, Xinyuan Fund announced that Chief Fixed Income Investment Officer Wang Haiyan would be transferred to research work.

In response to this incident, Dongwu Fund also reported to Times Finance about the transfer of two fund managers after their resignation, stating that "the adjustment mainly involves making reasonable arrangements based on the investment and research level, career planning of relevant personnel, and the company's business development needs. Generally, fund managers who resign will first be transferred to the research department to engage in research work, and if necessary, adjustments will be made according to the actual situation."

Fund managers usually leave their investment positions and switch to related investment research positions. Some people choose to join private equity, family offices, and other related positions, while others change careers after leaving. But according to several industry insiders, "it's rare to change careers, after all, the circle of abilities is here."

"There are not many who can remember changing careers, including those who open hot pot restaurants and those who shoot dramas, but because they have since left this industry, the current situation is not very clear," a fund practitioner told Time Finance.

Another person close to the fund industry told Time Finance, "Some people who have worked as investment managers in the industry have started working as self media and bloggers. The well-known self media blogger 'Liang Goudan' used to be a seller's analyst and also worked as an investment manager in a fund company. Now working part-time as a blogger is also considered a blow to dimensionality reduction, and the article reading volume is quite high."

It is understood that the manager of the "Liang Goudan" official account once worked in a well-known domestic seller's research institute and fund company, and currently works in a third-party organization. In 2016, he registered a official account, formerly known as "Liang Jinxin View Strategy", and later changed its name several times, eventually becoming famous after changing its name to "Liang Goudan". At present, the number of articles read on its official account has remained stable, with tens of thousands.