How to learn financial modelling when working at a mid buy side asset manager with no structured training?

Obviously the first port of call is selecting a highly regarded book. I've heard James English has an excellent book for equity analysts. But with a publication date of 2001, it seems slightly outdated. Are there any alternatives paths available to learning financial modelling that other analysts have taken on this board? Building a 3 statement financial model is essentially what I am aiming for. I'm based in London.

9 Comments
 

WSP and TTS are all good to learn modeling, but if you're already at a firm why not just pull up their models and take some time to learn how to recreate them? You wouldn't have to pay anything and you'd get a feel for how they like their models formatted.

 

They don't have their own models. I'm given complete freedom as to how I wish make my recommendations. Half a page of A4 to a 20 page thesis on the company. Everyone's style is so different so it is difficult to gauge how I should approach valuation.

 
Best Response
vinsta

Which ones in particular have you had experience with? The prices are pretty steep.

I've done fundamental one and the RE industry specific one. In all honesty, I thought they did a comprehensive job teaching the concepts through their courses. The fundamental one was a little light I thought (though had a little intro to financial modeling before, so that might be why), but they have an advanced one that supplements it, so I imagine they go much more in depth with that one. The RE one was great. Both teach you step by step how to set up the models, important valuation metrics, calculation and whatnot. I was skeptical too at first (since I've had less than stellar experiences with other online courses), but I was quite pleased with the overall quality.

I've never tried Wall Street Prep, but I believe they are affiliated with this site. Prices seem comparable, and I imagine the quality is similar.

IMO $500 is not a terrible amount to spend on this type of training (dropped tens of thousands on schooling that was less useful than this), but I think both have money back guarantees if you're worried about not getting your money's worth.

 

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