I've recently become very interested in this career path and was wondering what skills I may need to gain to be successful in interviews & ultimately on the job.
Do I need hard modeling skills(IB level)?
What books, courses, blogs, or anything really would you recommend I study to be prepare me for a career in equity research and to make me more competitive during the internship recruiting process.
Note: Im a sophomore at a target school.
If your in the U.S.A, just have some good stories, have a solid GPA, be involved in interesting ECs and manage a personal portfolio
you need to know how to research. start by searching this forum for answers to your questions, it will be good practice.
Read a 10K. All of it.
.
know how to analyze a company and comb through a 10-k's footnotes quickly.
know financial modeling and core valuation methodologies.
know about a few industries that really interest you, the drivers of that industry, and a few companies that are undervalued.
know how to structure your thoughts + write clearly and concisely.
cheers.
Listen to Flake, he knows. Also, search his Q&A session on ER
Errr I was kind of kidding about the 10K.
//www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/reading-10k
A really good book is "Best Practices for Equity Research Analysts" -- provides pretty good insights about understanding the job and what is important for you to do / not to do during your work. This is more "on the job" skills that really provide help for what you should be doing when you have a job, but it can also be helpful in seeing what the job looks like.
In terms of basic information and wanting to learn/study, I think that using something like BIWS' financial modeling course is quite sufficient. It'll really benefit you to do something like that.
Also, do some online searching for old versions of equity research reports. See what the structure looks like, the language, what they are saying is important. The more you can see and understand how an analyst gets from information to a recommendation on a stock, the better off you will be and the more prepared you will be for interviews, internships, and ultimately your career.
Quant Skills & Equity Research (Originally Posted: 06/28/2012)
What kind of quant skills do I need to pursue a career in ER? Can I make it in this industry with just basic calculus and statistics/econometrics?
I am concerned about my ability to compete with Math/Physics PhDs or engineering undergrads. I can score decently on the GMAT (90th percentile quant), but i'm worried about my mathematical aptitude being subpar
It kind of depends on the fund. Algebra is fine for funds such as those that concentrate on fundamentals where the majority of work is qualitative. For funds that tend to use algorithms to spot opportunities, well, yes, that would be a hard position to get.
Heavy math skills are only really need if you are a quant or work on the credit side of the business. Believe it or not research places more emphasis on qualitative skills rather then hard number crunching.
Ugh, honestly i hate all this talk about quant vs qual analysis. You use both and generally you don't want to focus on one too much.
Handwaving augments aren't grounded by evidence. Sophisticated modeling takes you away from reality.
Writing Skills In ER (Originally Posted: 08/10/2012)
Hey everyone.
Was researching ER and came across this comment:
How much of this is true? What can I do to illustrate/improve my writing skills (I'm a quant major)?
Good news for me, I'm an excellent writer. How do you improve? READ A LOT
If you want to be productive to mankind, you have to be a good writer.
You're welcome:
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/how-to-write-like-your-not-a-moron
You still have to articulate yourself well in writing on the buyside, but it's more important about having a good thesis with points to back it up. In the end, there are only a few major drivers of a security's price. You don't need 20+ pages for new earnings to figure out the rating. Also, you need to be able to speak to PMs every day about your ideas and articulate your thesis on the spot, not just in a note.
I get around the problem by putting lots of graphs. Lots and lots of graphs.
Writing is very important but like BeastMode said, you gota be able to talk the talk. The best research associates are basically buy-side analysts for rent.
Some buy-side firms require analysts to do write-ups, but write-ups tend to be more fact compiling than the type of work the sell-side does, so the writing isn't as important. The write-ups can be quite long and intensive.
Any tips for equity research interns at BB? (Originally Posted: 12/27/2009)
Hi,
I am about to start a seasonal internship at a BB in HK working in the equity research team. Around half of the interns might get the FT offer at the end of the internship. Thus, I am a little bit nervous about the coming work.
Could anybody here give some advice on the do's and dont's for a research intern? Is there any technical skills that I should acquaint myself with before the internship starts (e.g., VBA)?
Thx a lot!
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