Morgan Stanley
Profile

Vasileios

Analyst, Institutional Equity

How would you describe your job to someone outside the finance industry?

I conduct research on the hedge fund industry. We aggregate and anonymize hedge fund data and analyze it to identify trends in the industry. It’s useful to our clients because they can compare how they’re doing and evolving relative to peers. There’s limited data on the hedge fund industry, so our information can provide valuable insights.

Can you describe a typical day in the office?

It really varies. On a normal day, I would be writing reports. To do this, I look at what is going on in the market and what is going on in the hedge fund industry—I blend the two and find trends there. In addition, we have a lot of client requests—updates to a particular graph, or table, or study—so I deal with a lot of these on an ad hoc basis. We also have calls with institutional investors and portfolio managers. Then there’s work on long-term projects like building models. I try to be as efficient as possible.

What’s the most exciting thing you’ve worked on in your time at Morgan Stanley?

Last year I worked on a project that I was very passionate about. A big thing in the market is trying to understand what areas are crowded. We looked at 10 sectors of the market and said, “Okay, let’s see how bullish hedge funds are towards those areas.” I found this analysis very interesting because one might expect that when a lot of people are buying something, they’re buying it because it has a lot of potential—however oftentimes, it will underperform.

What would you say is the end result of your work?

What we do—from an investor standpoint—is provide information to better inform their decision making. The advantage of Morgan Stanley is that we have such a broad reach, we’re able to get all these anecdotes and data points and give investors a broader view. We don’t make calls—we observe and state facts. For example, portfolio managers from billion-dollar hedge funds were asking for our perspective on a recent commodity selloff and its effects on other asset classes. So our work can have a big effect on how people view the risks and rewards in different pockets of the market.

What are your hobbies and interests outside of work?

I love to sing and play the guitar. I played in college and now I enjoy playing in venues and bars. I also upload videos on YouTube where I teach people how to play the guitar. There are a lot of videos in the United States, but not in Greece—I’m from Greece originally—so I saw the opportunity and I’ve been uploading videos which have gotten hundreds of thousands of views. I also enjoy playing dodgeball. We have a dodgeball team at work but I also play in a league in NYC.

Can you describe the collegial culture of Morgan Stanley?

I love to help people. When I grew up, I received a lot of help and mentorship from amazing people—a lot of those people were from Morgan Stanley. Now I feel the need to do the same.

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