Jon Jacobs brings a unique perspective to financial content development, rooted in a decade-long immersion in the investment profession and a lifelong love of analytical and quantitative problem solving. A former analyst in one of
Wall Street’s best-known bond boutiques, Jon’s grounding
in bond and options mathematics, financial statement analysis, valuation models and portfolio theory fosters mutual respect and harmonious communication with investment team members.
His work has been published, quoted or excerpted in The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Institutional Investor publications, Reuters, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg TV, The Investment Professional, Portfolio.com, The Guardian, The Journal of Commerce, Trader Daily, Best Practices in Compensation & Benefits, and other financial and business publications.
Beyond the financial world, Jon’s word power and mental agility have helped his employers and clients establish thought leadership in three very dissimilar fields: Career Management, Global Transportation, and Mind-Sports.
A graduate of Harvard College and the Journalism Master’s program at University of California at Berkeley, he began his career as an editor of specialized publications covering global trade and logistics. A stint as a newswire reporter brought him into frequent contact with portfolio managers and awakened a passion for financial markets and analysis. From 1997 through 2006 Jon produced market commentaries, white papers and other customer communications at Cantor Fitzgerald and at IDEAglobal, a research boutique.
Currently he is engaged in giving back to the profession by writing career management advice and financial job-market intelligence for a niche job board serving mid-career investment professionals. He drafted the main points for a chief executive's December 2009 conference presentation on trends in financial services recruiting and participated in Q&A from the podium. For the New York Society of Security Analysts, during 2009 he organized a program on career opportunities in distressed investing and helped organize a federal government careers fair. He is also active in social media, regularly posting to Twitter and co-managing a 7,500-plus member LinkedIn Group. He served as Deputy Editor of the 2009-10 edition of Careers in Financial Markets, a 96-page guidebook aimed at college students and career changers, distributed through career services offices on 80 campuses across the U.S.
Commitment to Professional Development
Jon relies on professional development courses to maintain and strengthen his connection with the profession he writes about. He has invested more than 250 hours attending multi-session classes offered by the New York Society of Security Analysts, the New York Institute of Finance, Ibbotson Associates, and Wall St. Training.
- Portfolio Management
- Performance Attribution
- High-Yield Basic Tools
- Asset Allocation
- International Investing
- Security Analysis
- Advanced Financial Statement Modeling
- Accounting and Financial Statement Analysis
- Business Valuation
- Monte Carlo Simulation
- Options Trading