The Battle of Financial Modeling Courses in 2020
There are lots of options to learn financial modeling these days. For reading materials, most people recommend Investment Banking (3e) by Rosenbaum & Pearl, Financial Modeling (4e) by Benninga, Valuation (7e) by McKinsey & Company, or Damodaran's (also his YouTube videos). But when it comes to more structured contents, these two courses are always mentioned in Internet forums:
– Breaking into Wall Street (BIWS)
Financial Modeling Premium (Excel and Fundamentals + Advanced Modeling)
$497
– Wall Street Prep (WSP)
Financial Modeling Premium Package
$499
It could be said that both courses above are the go-to standard for self-study modeling. However, there are new and rising contenders:
– Corporate Finance Institute (CFI)
Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA)
$497
– Wall Street Oasis (WSO)
Elite Modeling Package
$447 (soon it will be $497)
These four courses do offer certification after you complete them, but that's not the point since these certificates may be meaningless to employers. We want to talk about their core content. I read that the BIWS package has the best explanation, while the WSP package is what most banks use, more thorough, and includes 30 bonus mini-courses. On the other hand, the FMVA's curriculum seems to lean toward corporate finance and it has templates which, some say, are more modern. Have any of you completed FMVA and would you recommend the program instead of WSP/BIWS? Also, the WSO package looks promising, although the other 3 courses won't be ready until August. For those of you who have enrolled in the WSO modeling courses, what makes them distinct from others? Are they more relevant to current industry practice?
Please discuss.