They need a full model with quarterly historicals and forecasts. Honestly, I don't think I can do this. Don't have the skills and time (3 days in hand rn) need to make a DCF with quarterly data. I'm thinking of giving up on their case study round. Probably focusing elsewhere may increase my chances in other positions.
Didn't know an undergrad had to know so much. Damn it. I will have to take up the longer route to learn things, I guess.
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Don’t give up. I would recommend watching this video, it helped me learn DCFs in the beginning of my college career. It’s titled “Discounted Cash Flow” by the YouTube channel “Learn to Invest - Investors Grow”.
I've seen that there are three 10-Qs and one 10K. How do we get the 4th quarter data? I'm sorry, it's a dumb question.
And I've seen examples of an annual DCF, how can we do this with a quarterly 3-statement model?
10K minus the third quarter 10-Q which is 9 month cumulative.
If you actually read the 10k, it shows 4th quarter data as well
Whatever you do bro, do not give up. This industry requires grit. Forget the job, get as much as you can out of learning something new with a deadline; that’s basically what we do.
What company is the model for? Could you send me the case?
Is this even worth the effort vs top BB? Like my impression is that pods will take you at any point in your career so why would you bust your ass to get there ASAP?
Training at CAP/Academy is much better for the specific job.
IB gives optionality.
Currently going through the P72 Experienced Hire case study. If it's any consolation, I've been locked in my apt for the past 2 days working on it, and I'm about 20ish% done. Do as my username and keep at it.
And they want everything from scratch, DCF and historicals. I understand that going through this “by hand” show’s character but like if I saw someone recreate 12 years worth of data from scratch I’d think it’s a waste of time. Like time management HAS to be the foremost concern if they assigned this. You can legit go on Bloomberg and pull the exact same data in 5 minutes vs sit on your ass going through ever like item and lose your sanity every minute.
you need to be able to do all those things before you even do Point72's internship for undergrads. Naturally, you'd need to be able to do it for the full-time role...
Although it's reasonable to expect that someone passionate in a career in HF would already be building plenty of models in their own time, and DCFs would be smtg that they 'just do' or 'would know', I sometimes also think these sort of practices give students a lot of conflict. Meaning - these firms always like to say they don't expect you to know a whole lot. But then the recruiting process is laden with heavy technicals and modeling tests that would select for finance students. These tests would even gatekeep out 'smarter' STEM students who just don't know traditional finance (but could learn in no time on the job) - precisely the types that firms would want.
Then, once you break in, in the actual Academy (and intern training for IB as well), it goes back to square one and truly teaches you from scratch.
There's a mismatch in the process, I truly think
this isn't really a fair comparison. I've interned at Point72; when i interviewed i knew literally nothing re accounting and modelling but i had interesting views and analysis on businesses. That was enough. I was then given materials to learn (including modelling and valuation etc) before the internship started. It was like 40 hours of material or something similar. The bar is much higher at a hedge fund, even if the Academy is designed to get you up to speed they need you to be technically literate before you start. That's what the internship (in part) preps you for. You'll see quite a few students doing the internship that don't have a finance background.
The full time Academy is an entirely different beast; its intense as shit and you'll be pitching (meaning modelling from the ground up) a company every 1-2 weeks at its peak. You absolutely need to be able to model before you step into it. Anyway, the bulk of the Academy is made up of people that did the internship and converted; its pretty normal to require external grad hires to at least match the technical ability of your interns that are going into the full time.
Can't really compare it to a bank. The standard is just way higher for a hedge fund - they don't have the time to teach you from the ground up and give you a few years before you meaningfully contribute to the firm's top line. At Point72/Citadel, you get a training program and then you're in a pod contributing to PnL.
what i found is point72/citadel really look for passion above all else. if you have the passion you would have at least learned the basics yourself
Sorry, I know it has been a while but how did you even get past the case study to the interview round if you truly knew no finance technicals? How did you complete the case study in the first place?
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