What does a typical day look like during earnings season?

Earnings means 2 or 3 weeks that are mostly as follows for me (I'm based in Europe).

• Wake up 6h30

• Office by 7h30

• Reading highlights from previous day US post close earnings for 30min

• Checking pre-market earnings of my coverage and other names of interest: putting numbers into my models, writing down my thoughts, listening calls or reading transcripts

• The previous step goes on the whole day (covering names from Asia to US)

• Checking stock reactions, volumes, sell-side commentary

• Working day ends at 19h30 (not too busy) or until 22h+ (very busy)

• My game is to get what I need from reading the earnings result without dedicating too much time for each company and then come back later at the end of the day to further investigate, write more extensive notes that will help me when I'll need to check something in the future, etc.

• Workout to wrap up my day

Hours are longer, stakes are higher, need to think on your feet and be decisive. Typical hours outside of earnings ~12 hrs mo-fri, rarely working more than 3-4 hours over the weekend. During earnings season, depending on how many names we've got in the book, 16-18 hour days aren't uncommon on those triple-header days with multiple prints. BUT, this is my favorite part of the job. You get your report card. Sometimes you had the quarter right and the price action tells you otherwise - in some cases that's an opportunity to get bigger on price, in others maybe you're missing something. Sometimes you nail your names, and the highs are high. Other quarters you can't get a single win, and it feels terrible. It's taxing - hours, anxiety/stress, infiltrates your dreams (maybe that's just me? lol), and pressure to be decisive AND most importantly be honest with yourself. But it's also extremely rewarding. Net-net, I live for this stuff, so I enjoy it. But my body/psyche probably doesn't.  

Below are generalizations, before you come and throw monkey dumps at me. Every situation is different, too many variables and situation-specific things at play to cover everything. This is just a general overview from a SM L/S analyst (though in my particular role I'm shorting stocks 75% of the time, and have done a decent job of generating alpha doing so over the few (LSD) years).   

On days with multiple prints (west-coast based):

- Pre-market prints: Arrive at the desk around 5am (I try to, at least). Generally, position size informs which press releases get read first. Pass on thoughts to PM as I digest. As for this "digestion", it's high-level at first when juggling multiple names...Most have the 1-3 key KPIs/metrics/line-items that really matter, that's what I'm wrapping my mind around first along w/ guidance updates (and to what extent, if any, current quarter's result implies an effective guide down/up/unch'd). In more liquid names, pre-market price action will give me somewhat of an indication of what to expect at open (depending on what that pre-market volume actually looks like). Need to be prepared to be decisive - we're going to see price action and volume (higher than ADV, typically, anyways), so digest and act accordingly. Listen to the most important call, transcripts for the others. Circle up with PM, discuss in greater detail, determine what we want to do and act (or not act) accordingly. Once we've gotten our arms around the quarter from a high-level, I'm punching in the rest of the quarter's numbers and begin updating projections as I see fit based upon what was revealed this morning.  

Post-market prints: More flexibility, as we have the evening to digest. Less under-the-gun. Same process. Punching in numbers and passing along tidbits to PM/team. These nights are typically longer ones, as I'm updating multiple models, distilling new information and thinking hard about how (if at all) what I've just learned changes my views around my perception of fair value/position sizing/etc. 

Communication: Distilling all of this new information/model revisions/valuation thoughts/perception of the position & sizing as succinctly and directly as possible. Less is more. I work on this to this day. Write-up goes out to the team/trading, with my recommendations under a range of prices we may see the following day. 

Filings: If you need to be told to read these, you should be out on your ass. Huge pet peeve of mine. Redline and read. Can be golden nuggets from time to time, and there's no excuse for missing something critical. Changes to accounting policies, risk factor changes/change in order of risk factors, md&a, warranty accrual assumptions, payment term changes/collection term changes, subsequent events, list goes on...Capitalize on the laziness of others. Majority of the time, nothing captivating will be found, but it's good practice. Why did DSOs blow out? Oh, they extended favorable payment terms to a large distributor. First time I've seen this disclosure when comparing to past filings...Oh, and their rebate activity was simultaneously surging. Maybe they stuffed they channel to make their number? In this instance, this company did, and the destocking that occurred the following quarter was epic. This is the exception, not the rule, but you'd be surprised by the laziness of many, which creates oppty for you. 

Earnings outside the current book: aside from the names in my book, typically listening to a handful of calls/looking at prints in names I'm familiar with/have been involved in historically. And will typically listen to the super mega cap names given the degree to which their tentacles touch virtually everything. Find it useful for idea generation purposes at times.