yada yada yada...Read your whole old bit on the whole IB / BuySide thing but where is the reference to my question that arose from your statement: "stock brokers turning into Portfolio Managers? That wouldn't happen in gizzilion years!"??? It isn't outta the norm for someone who previously was a stock-broker to end up being a research analyst elsewhere...Nothing impossible. And for them to become portfolio managers, hell this has been proven right before me so I don't doubt it can happen again. Anyone outta a solid 4 year program, with all the right contacts can make it to being a Portfolio Manager someday (even if they did happen to be a stock broker in between). And yes, stock brokers who manage their cleints' funds are in a way emulating what these Portfolio managers at IBs do for their high net worth clients (but at a much smaller scale). Its not only Sell stocks for Stock Brokers, they manage their cleint's investments too for which a POA is so easy to get these days. For this, daily research is necessary. I don't know where you get your points from but you seriously need to get ya facts sorted out, as there is simply no logic to your statement that made me choke on myself...BTW, a fund manager is something that would be much harder for a broker though as there is much more involved than just cherry-picking the right investments and cold-calling prospective clients (I assume you confused yourself between a fund-manager and a portfolio manager?). DC Girl, My apologies for digressing from the topic