Meet Portfolio Manager, Stephanie Wang
September 30, 2024
Watch Time 3:00 MIN
Hi. My name is Stephanie Wang. I'm the portfolio manager for municipal bond ETFs.
Stephanie’s financial journey
I've been surrounded by finance since I was a kid. Thanks to my mom working in this industry, our house in Shanghai was always buzzing with the latest financial news. One of my earliest memories is of her taking me to the stock exchange during school breaks. I remember being fascinated by the flashing numbers and intricate charts I couldn't move my eyes away from the screen feeling a strong pull towards a world of finance. It was in those moments that I realized my future lay in this field.
And after graduating in high school in China, I embarked on a new journey to New York City, where I enrolled at Baruch College to study finance, math, and economics. My passion for finance kept growing, especially after a professor introduced me to the Master of Financial Engineering program at Baruch. With a solid foundation in finance and math, I dove into programming and financial modeling, honing my skills through various projects and coursework.
Time at VanEck
In 2016, I had this incredible opportunity to join a fixed income ETF team at VanEck. It was an exhilarating new time as the ETF market was growing rapidly.
My quantitative background proved invaluable as I collaborated closely with our quantitative solution group. Together we created a proprietary optimization model, a sophisticated tool designed to enhance the tracking performance of the municipal bound ETFs. Additionally, I automated several daily workflow for the team and developed a system to analyze the sources of tracking error.
During my early years at VanEck, I gained extensive hands-on experience in various aspects of portfolio management. I managed intra-month fund flows, ensuring smooth and efficient operations, and handled complex process of rebalancing corporate and emerging market-bound ETFs.
I became increasingly drawn to the municipal bond market.
It was fascinated by its unique and complex factors, such as varying credit qualities, tax considerations, the influence of local economic conditions, and the legislative policy changes. Over the past few years, I've been heavily involved in trading municipal bonds and assessing new deals in the primary market.
This experience has allowed me to identify the factors that drives price movement and gain a deeper understanding of the market liquidity.
The municipal market is a constantly evolving landscape, and I'm excited to be at the forefront, making meaningful contributions and driving innovation.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE
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Investments in emerging markets bonds may be substantially more volatile, and substantially less liquid, than the bonds of governments, government agencies, and government-owned corporations located in more developed foreign markets. Emerging markets bonds can have greater custodial and operational risks, and less developed legal and accounting systems than developed markets.
The yields and market values of municipal securities may be more affected by changes in tax rates and policies than similar income-bearing taxable securities. Certain investors incomes may be subject to the Federal Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and taxable gains are also possible.
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