Fund Managers: What do they do?

If you were extremely rich, you'd be able to afford a team of private money managers - people who would watch the markets daily and seek out investment opportunities for you.
The good news is that you don't need to be rich to access this - it's what fund managers do.

A managed fund is an investment that consists of a pool of funds from someone else etc. These funds combine to be in the millions, and are invested by professional fund managers.
Financial Planners are good at being financial planners. We're not fund managers. Our job is to recommend financial strategies that will help you achieve your long term goals. It's what we're good at.
We choose to outsource the actual managing of your money to professional fund managers. It's their job and it's what they're good at.

A good investment company has a team of staff who manage your money. Let's consider a fund that invests in Australian shares.
The fund employs a team of investment analysts. Each analyst may have a different field of expertise i.e. resource stocks, telecommunications companies etc. They have access to a wide range of research on the companies they're looking at. Due to the size of the funds, they're able to meet with the key staff of the companies and visit their offices. They're able to react quickly to company announcements and market movements.

Due to the size of the funds, they're often able to obtain some cost reductions. For example, the stockbroking rates they'd pay will be far less than what the average investor pays.The fund invests your money across a range of companies. Some share funds may have a concentrated portfolio of around 20 stocks, others may hold over 100.

A fund manager has a process that removes the emotion. They have defined reasons for buying (or selling) a share. If the price declines, they'll want to see why and if they still believe in the company they'll generally see the price decline as an opportunity to buy more shares at a cheaper price.