Hi WSO,
I am a young student looking to learn about the market and the different areas of Finance. I have always been fascinated with Wall street and I am trying to start early to put myself in position to break in eventually.
I have been following the market and reading articles online but I was wondering what are some other steps I could take to get a more detailed look into what specific areas of a bank do. I am basically looking for any advice or direction from an experienced person in Finance that you wish someone told you when you first got started. Reading/Study recommendations, tips how to understand and follow the market better, good areas of a bank that have promising futures that I should look into, etc.
Simply put: I want to have a better understanding of finance/markets/wall st, and figure out some sort of direction and path I want to head in. Where do I start?
I like the idea of sales, I enjoy making new friends and building relationships and this is something I think I would find myself to be good at, but sales is such a broad idea that from my understanding can apply to all aspects of a bank. Trading seems exciting too.
Any advice is appreciated and i am new to WSO so if you want more clarification lmk.
Thanks
I was the same exact way at your age except I wanted to get into the more trading/investing side of things rather than banking/investment banking. Good news, your not to late to start and learn if you want to get into either business. As for me i began trading on my own in college, learning how investing worked, the different philosophies, strategies etc. I have read close to 50 full books by now on the topic (im currently 23) and i would have to say, whenever anyone asks me how to get started about markets/investing are the following two books: (either will do or both)
The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing: Fifth Edition - Jason Kelly
The Only Investment Guide You''ll Ever Need - Andrew Tobias
this site called investment masters (mastersinvest.com) is also an incredibly useful starting place. check out the tutorials.
If you like those and wish to learn more and take it a bit further when it comes to investing the following are still good beginning books that in my opinion can be used as a great investing foundation and really help with having an understanding of financial markets:
The Dhandho Investor - Mohnish Pabrai
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits - Philip Fisher
You Can Be A Stock Market Genius - Joel Greenblatt
And if you wanted to go further at a more higher level these are a must read and are the best:
The Most Important Thing Illuminated - Howard Marks
The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham
Narrative & Numbers - Aswath Damodaran
One Up On Wall Street - Peter Lynch
As for investment banking:
Investment Banking for Dummies, (actually not that bad of a read)
The best thing to do is read and interviews on youtube. Interviews with people like Buffett, Munger, Nelson Peltz, Bill Ackman, Joel Greenblatt, Mohinsh Pabrai, Aswath Damodaran (check out his site he puts all his classes online and material and you could practically use his site alone and build your own MBA curriculum, Corporate Finance class great one to start with). Other guys include Howard Marks ( my favorite), Paul Singer, Bruce Berkowitz, Seth Klarman, Whitney Tilson, Dan Loeb, Stanley Druckenmiller, Ray Dalio, David Einhorn, Francois Rochon, Jamie Dimon Lloyd Blankfein.
Real Vision TV is also a great learning spot with interviews from some of the best in finance and inexpensive for students. I think its $12 a month.
Everyday reading places that i use/like:
Value investing world
Farnam Street
CNBC Buffett Archive
Base Hit Investing
WSO
As for figuring out what you wanna do, something i read that made a lot of sense for me in college was find what type of intelligence you have and leverage it as much as possible during your life, but make sure you enjoy what it is!
-Hope this all helps.
You're off to a good start given your internship and willingness to post here looking for help. I would definitely recommend sites like WSO, Mergers and Inquisitions, Street of Walls, etc. for learning more about investment banks. If you're looking to talk in person with investment bankers and actually run through mock interviews, you could try something like The Lobby to directly schedule a call with an investment banker. Know quite a few people who have gotten jobs off of advice/guidance they've gotten from people on the site
I have been meeting with guys at my firm in banking while here on internship. It's tough not having any experience or being in the program but I am building relationships at least. Any reading materials, videos, practice, etc you suggest?
What exactly is it that you fear you do not know. I think the first step here is being sure you know what it is you're trying to know. Otherwise you'll just waste a bunch of time reading irrelevant WSJ articles. To get the juices flowing: 1) Are you afraid you don't know the technicals? 2) Are you afraid you don't know how to properly answer behavioral questions? 3) Do you not know the difference between different areas of an investment bank and how they interact with each other? 4) Do you not know what the career progression and expectations are for a banker?
All very different questions to answer. Brainstorm and let me know, and I may be able to help you better.