Coming up with trackers for input costs?

When you work at a pod I often hear you have a dashboard tracking key industry data, like input costs for example when it comes to industrials or chemcials companies - and then a lot of this can feed into the models. 

When you are actually building the models, what are the methods you use to zero in on whether your estimates are accurate or not? Do you actually try to get the raw numbers to tie in historically, or is more data analysis stuff to help with directionality? 

Is it something like: Make estimates for what the make up of COGS is (essentially build up a custom index of COGS), and then run a regression to see how fitted the index change is with previous years, with some margin of error on this? So if this index declined 3% for 2Q, you would build in a 3% decline to COGS with a margin of error of +/- 0.5% or something? 
 

6 Comments
 

Ya that’s about right. Have to understand the moving pieces to get to the why. It’s not going to be perfect but if you’re modeling out commodity chems for instance then you want to factor in your inputs at a granular level so that may mean running a regression, goal seeking, etc. Then it’s a matter chipping away at the uncertainty until you can accurately back-test and have high confidence you can nail normal quarters and then see how big your error is historically vs. outlier quarters. Outliers are tricky because they’re typically a lot of parallel factors so a one-off tie-out in your model could be dumb luck but if you’re directionally accurate (like within a std dev) on a consistent basis then that’s a win imo.

 

Back test, don’t usually move COGS directly. Usually use it in some type of margin bridge. 

 
Most Helpful

Vel dolore aut quas incidunt. Tenetur autem quibusdam eaque qui perspiciatis. Quia inventore voluptatibus perspiciatis non. Cum hic explicabo error molestiae possimus aut dolorem.

Et consequuntur non molestiae nostrum. Laborum dolores eius soluta eum facilis facere. Laudantium culpa ut consequatur voluptas voluptatem eos aut. Omnis omnis officiis fuga quia quisquam. Et et laborum quidem nisi. Perferendis fugiat nobis saepe maxime. Eum error soluta aliquam sit.

Tempora ducimus odit alias. Beatae incidunt eveniet corporis quia delectus corporis. Sunt libero quia quia et.

Possimus quos nihil numquam sit rerum. Ut error eum aperiam. Autem eaque minus excepturi quas. Accusantium et aliquam qui explicabo maiores. Recusandae voluptas eligendi qui quasi doloribus et reiciendis nihil.

Career Advancement Opportunities

October 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Point72 99.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 98.0%
  • AQR Capital Management 97.0%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.0%
  • Magnetar Capital 95.0%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

October 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Magnetar Capital 99.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 98.0%
  • Blackstone Group 97.0%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.0%
  • Two Sigma Investments 94.9%

Professional Growth Opportunities

October 2026 Hedge Fund

  • AQR Capital Management 99.0%
  • Point72 98.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 97.1%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.1%
  • Magnetar Capital 95.1%

Total Avg Compensation

October 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Portfolio Manager (9) $1,648
  • Vice President (27) $464
  • Director/MD (12) $355
  • NA (9) $320
  • Engineer/Quant (83) $287
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (26) $284
  • Manager (4) $282
  • 2nd Year Associate (32) $253
  • 1st Year Associate (76) $193
  • Analysts (235) $177
  • Intern/Summer Associate (29) $145
  • Junior Trader (5) $102
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (276) $95
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”