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William Dong
& team
UBS
"Their trading-oriented analyses help our hedge fund products generate alpha."
Returning to the top spot after slipping to second place last year, William Dong’s UBS squad of seven monitors 74 companies. “William provides a good investment framework,” says one money manager. “He is always on top of current events.” Dong, 44, and his Taipei-based team argue that the next generation of smartphones and tablet computers will spur demand for certain high-technology components, at least in the near term. They have a buy, for instance, on Hsinchu-based AU Optronics Corp., a maker of display-panel electronics, which they added to their short list of most-preferred stocks in November, at 11.85 Taiwan dollars. The stock jumped 14.3 percent, to NT$13.55, and outpaced Taiwan’s broad market by 2.8 percentage points, through April. For the second half of 2013, however, the researchers are more cautious, as they expect inventories to rise and margins to narrow, Dong notes. — Ben Mattlin