Hi Pat

Thanks for joining us for coffee today. You’ve recently joined us at IAM, we’re interested to learn more about your background and how you came to be part of the team.

Hi Pat, thanks for joining us for coffee today. You’ve been at IAM for over six months now. Tell us about your current role at IAM and the types of clients that you will be working with here in Sydney.

My current role is an associate in the Sales team. As a more junior member of the team, it is mostly based around supporting the other dealers with their day to day and working to give clients the best experience possible. My time is spent mostly across advisers and private clients, but I would love to spend more time working on the institutional side.

Your previous role was in operations at JP Morgan, how have you been able to transfer across any skills into your role in Capital Markets? How do you also find working in a smaller team?

Coming from what was a very busy JPM operations team taught me the beauty of time management and task prioritization. The ability to work efficiently and effectively allows me to put more effort into the value-add parts of the job and to grow my knowledge base. The other benefit is having knowledge on the entire trade lifecycle, from execution to settlement. Knowing what needs to be done to sort out issues such as settlement problems is always handy to have.

Whilst working with a multitude of different people was always good for banter and holiday coverage, working in a smaller team allows me to be more dynamic and work in a less segregated environment, learning across different areas. Things can get particularly difficult when working across time zones with tight deadlines and that is one thing I certainly do not miss.

Now, let’s dive deeper into your expertise and how you operate within the ever-changing financial markets.

What are some of the common misconceptions you’ve come across in your experience regarding the bond market?

The big misconception that I come across, and I was guilty of myself, is thinking that bonds are purely a defensive asset that are not going to give you stellar returns but will provide stability to your portfolio. Whilst this is partially true, there are so many different bonds out there – particularly in the high yield space – that can generate or even outperform equities.

Do you have a personal investment mantra or any guiding principles or philosophies that inform your investment approach?

Going to be a bit cliché with this one, but Rome was not built in a day. Having the diligence to consistently add to your investment portfolio and stick to your savings goals goes a long way when looking at a long term investment horizon. Intrinsic motivation is key.

Would you share with us 2 of your favourite bonds?

UBS 4.375 Perp

These bonds still provide excellent value on a shorter maturity date. You are still being compensated for the uncertainty around the Credit Suisse saga, whilst UBS is in a far stronger position both globally and domestically than Credit Suisse was in recent years.

Pacnat 31’s

With RBA coming towards the end of the hiking cycle, High Duration bonds present a lot of value in a 12-18 month time horizon.