NYSSA Equity Research Initiation Report

***Please look at the bottom of the post before PM-ing me for materials.

Summary: NYSSA IRC as a Stepping Stone in Getting a Job in ER

It seems like there are fair amount of people who are interested in Equity Research on this site. There are a lot of good advices being given and having the actual work samples to refer to would definitely help prospective Monkeys looking to break into Equity Research. I am pretty sure that it would be very useful for prospective Monkeys to actually know how an initiation report is being put together.

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Obviously, I cannot put out work-related materials here. However, this is the closest thing to the real world work samples that you can find. I was the team captain of my school’s Equity Research team and participated in the 8th Annual Investment Research Challenge (IRC) sponsored by New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) from September 2009 to April 2010.

The competition was absolutely brutal. I was doing full time 9-5 internship, full time school after the internship (all evening classes), CFA level 1, and then this competition for six months straight. This experience definitely helped me in making my own case during investment banking interviews where I referenced how I work well under pressure and under a tight timeline. Sleep was nowhere to be found while I was going through my graduate program.

At my school, over 300 people applied for 5 spots available in the team. The odds weren’t pretty, 5/300 = 1.67% chances of getting in the team. But then, I made it. I have never taken a “No” for an answer in my life and kept pushing the academic adviser until he let me in the team after two rounds of interviews. My determination and persistence got me into the team and I was picked as the team captain.

And for the 8th annual NYSSA IRC competition, sixteen schools competed. Assuming that each school has similar turnouts: 16 x 300 = 4,800 to fill in 5 x 16 = 80 spots, so there are 16 teams made out of 80 people chosen from 4,800 students. Only one team can win. It was an epic Battle Royale.

The competition was divided into two stages: submitting research report and giving a presentation. Our equity research report placed up among the top five teams. We actually ranked the highest among all the teams beating NYU, Columbia and Yale. We were the non-target underdogs. However, we did not fare very well on the presentation and got ourselves in the 8th place for the overall competition. Fordham University got the first place.

Schools that participated in the 8th NYSSA IRC:
• Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business
• Charles F. Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University
• Christos M. Cotsakos College of Business at William Patterson University
• Columbia Business School
• Cornell University’s The Johnson School
• Fordham University’s College of Business Administration
• The Hagan School of Business at Iona College
• Hofstra University’s Frank G. Zarb School of Business
• NYU Stern School of Business
• Pace University’s Lubin School of Business
• The Peter J. Tobin College of Business at St. John’s University
• Quinnipiac University’s School of Business
• Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick
• Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University
• Stony Brook University’s College of Business
• Yale University

It was a six months long program, where our team got mentored by an industry expert who guided us through every step in putting together an initiation report. We were also coached on how to think about the industry, put together research report and present our findings. Without having gone through this program, it would have been almost impossible for me to break into Wall Street. Therefore, I would like to share it with fellow Monkeys, hoping that some of you can find meaningful insights from this process as much as I did and will be able to use it to your advantages in securing a full time position. All the files are unprotected, allowing you to make changes as necessary. I would highly suggest going through the financial model.

NYSSA IRC Materials:
NYSSA IRC Timeline: http://www.box.com/s/1cef775bf8f209f27078
NYSSA IRC Previous Year Winner NYU on PVH: http://www.box.com/s/a086141839effba4c25e
NYSSA IRC Judging Criteria (Presentation): http://www.box.com/s/9163f162c5eb145298d8
NYSSA IRC BITS Report: http://www.box.com/shared/p1n6t7vggi
NYSSA IRC BITS Model: http://www.box.com/s/c4a49d276c687078b3da
NYSSA IRC BITS Presentation: http://www.box.com/s/a85867fc5e429f3ff859
NYSSA IRC BITS Presentation Q&A: http://www.box.com/s/ecb1963a5bab5a3f3489

Bonus Items:
Quick Overview on Valuation: http://www.box.com/s/810cdfb62535f3081456
Equity Research Analyst Handbook: http://www.box.com/s/95be1f229c51661b9cd9

Press Coverage:
http://www.imakenews.com/nyssa/e_article001586940…
http://www.nyssa.org/AboutNYSSA/PressReleases/tab…

P.S. I have copyrights on all of these materials.
And please show me some love with silver bananas. :-)