Most financial institutions also have a sales force catering to wealthy private individuals. This work resembles institutional sales but is more individualistic and idiosyncratic. A private-client specialist is a kind of stockbroker, in that he or she lives solely or primarily on commissions and must constantly bring new ideas to clients. Strong social skills are necessary here as well, and the best private-client professionals develop a franchise of individuals who trust them and give them business. The mutual fund industry has grown explosively and has attracted individuals from many backgrounds.
Typical strategies are value based, contrarian or momentum based.
Some celebrated fund managers have simply had a knack for finding lesser-known companies and understanding which of them were destined to succeed. This is the area of finance in which advanced theory, as taught not only in the MBA program but also in the PhD program, has its greatest application. Fund management is less cyclical than many other financial careers and is often less frenzied than the sell-side jobs. An important career opportunity often overlooked by students is equity research. Analysis is done both on the sell side for brokerage firms and on the buy side for mutual fund managers and other investment managers.