Mutualism

As I reflect on my week at (qp) global, I try to think of a term that encompasses my personal contribution to the company. After analyzing how my work impacts both the firm and myself, I have realized that mutualism is the perfect term to describe the relationship between my superiors and myself.  (qp) global has recently began re-underwriting all of their active investments. My job is to go through the list of their investments and fill out a questionnaire to figure out what (qp) global knows and what they don’t know about each investment. I often concern myself with whether I am doing a satisfactory job on these assignments and if they are actually helping the team. After interacting with members of the team, it is safe to say that my process is valuable to them. Following the pandemic, (qp) global decided that they want to have a better grasp over their active investments and re-determine risk factors as we enter a new world. With around 35 different investments and only 6 employees, it is helpful to the team that I am uncovering unknowns in each investment. I had not thought much about how my personal contribution was also helping myself. Obviously learning is a major facet of any internship, but as I got into the swing of it I was more focused on proving that I could do a good job rather than analyzing what I’ve learned thus far.

Thinking about the work I’ve done, I can say that I have learned a lot. Many of their active investments are unique or niche, or something that I had never even considered to be a possibility. I’ve learned about a fund that buys minerals in the ground. I’ve learned about a fund that buys catalogs of 8+ year old Christian, Latin, and Asian music and get paid royalties when the song is used in movies, TV shows, or video games. Granted, some pf the funds are less exciting, such as a fund that invests in real-estate debt. However, I am learning a ton. Not just by someone telling em something but actually having access to confidential documents to discover exactly what these funds are doing and how they are able to make returns. It is incredibly interesting and I love learning about a new area of finance everyday. I am not only gaining insight in to how these funds operate but also how they think and what steps are being taken to mitigate risk. On top of that I am learning about what makes a good investment and have a front row seat to the process in which (qp) global decides how they want to invest.