I’m a BOM at this time and want to learn more about what an investment analyst does. I know the premise of the position, but I was hoping for some real insight from AF members about a typical day in the works. All input is appreciated. Secondly, working at this firm in back office has really turned me off from money management. I’m half tempted to take my CFA pursuit to the corp finance/treasury/controller route. Though my exposure is limited in money management, I’m feeling unattracted to it at this time. Through my Level 1 succession, I enjoyed corp finance greatly. Given there are some members that work in this capacity, I’d be more than interested in hearing about it.
…deciding which numbers to pull out of thin air.
It depends. There are IA’s who actually analyze investment opportunities such as stocks, bonds, etc. But most of the time I’ve come to understand the term IA to mean someone who mostly does performance analysis and handles pricing of funds. It’s better than BO, but it’s not as good as a research or PM role.
that’s my title. but thats becasue they couldn’t officially call me a research analyst until you’re licensed. its all back office, but i’m okay with that. a lot of writeups on equities and portfolio building, i work for a broker/pm. i do trading too. its basically a little bit of everything. now that they trust me enough, i’ll probably be doing some presentations to clients at events, etc, but in the past and for now, i’m the one who builds the presentations. i do enjoy the job though. and i got it with only the LI under my belt. it helps that my pm and the rest of my team are excellent to work with.
if it’s P/E or real estate, acquisitions underwriting might fall under this heading. This is a pretty interesting position IMO. Your analysis and recommendation will have direct $ consequences for the company. It involves cash flow/return projections and other due diligence activities. You might be responsible for creating/maintaining models used to forecast your inputs in the pro forma. Usually you’ll be part of a team that presents the analysis and recommendation to the investment committee. Pretty rewarding to see your deals get approved and succeed, imo.
Like mentioned above, it depends. Some of my tasks are (no specific order): -Filter through a universe to focus on the things we want to invest in -Have discussions (pitch/defend ideas) with other analysts/PMs pertaining to potential investments -Look for macro and industry trends by running different analyses -Research qualitative aspects of companies/industries, through different sources -Check out quantitative stuff by building earnings models / working off of models built by sell-side analysts -Talk with management and sell-side analysts -Lots of other tiny things Sorry for the little coherence in the list, but that should give you a jist.
My title is investment analyst, but it does kind of vary depending. Best case: you do what your title implies, analyze investments. Worst case: you are a data guy that does a lot of screening and performance stuff. There are usually some stops along the curve up to senior analyst or PM, so your role could change as you get better. This is something to find out when you talk to the company.
eureka Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Worst case: you are a data guy that does a lot of screening and performance stuff. Yeah, that’s me right there.
dumb question, what entails screening and performance stuff?
^ Screen the universe for investment options (ie mutual funds), and keeping data fresh and updated. IMO most of the time you can use Investment Analyst and Performance Analyst interchangably.
Investment Analyst can mean virtually anything. There are guys out in the field analyzing possible intellectual property assets in China (raw ideas)…they are IAs. There is some other guy sitting at his desk reconciling bond book values from Bloomberg to the ledger and he is called an IA too. There is some dood collecting market data like S&P500 returns and crunching data on APPL profit margin and he is an IA. There is some guy picking his nose at an insurance company while making a pie graph on investment allocation by asset class and it still says 95% bonds, just like it said 14 years ago, sometimes he changes the color of the 5% slice, and this d-bag is actually getting paid and is called a Sr. IA. It can mean anything dood.
spope Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ^ > > Screen the universe for investment options (ie > mutual funds), and keeping data fresh and updated. > IMO most of the time you can use Investment > Analyst and Performance Analyst interchangably. I totally disagree. Lemme guess, you work for a consultant or in PE fof? It just really depends. I know guys with Phds or years of experience whose title is Investment Analyst. I also know guys with just a couple years under their belt that fit more into the data role. It like asking what PM entails: most people immediately think equities or HF, forgetting there are index PMs, HNW guys called PMs, short duration fixed guys called PMs…you get the point. You need to ask the employer what investment analyst means to them. Or, if you tell me what type of employer it is I could tell you what it will entail.
purealpha, could not have said it better.
Lots of consultanting firm also have investment analyst. They do lot of performance measurment, manager selection, asset allocation suggestion, drafint investmnet policy statement. Like Purealpha said, it can be lot of things depend on what firm/industry.
Thanks everyone. Can anyone in a corp finance capacity comment on their job and typical day? Assuming the position is suitable for the CFA job requirements, I’d be interested in working in A/L management, treasury, or a controller position. Otherwise working for the USPS seems alright given nothing can be found in this economy.
forget about titles - figure out what you actually wanna DO. The aim in life is to make money & have fun. That’s about it really. If you’re in your 20s and working for somebody else then the primary aim is to LEARN as much as you can so you can get out and make money & have fun. You only make real money working for yourself. Yes I know a lot of traders (prop traders mainly) who make a lot of money working for somebody else but most of it goes up their noses and when they wake up next morning they can’t remember if they had fun or not. That’s not living. Forget titles, work like an animal learning everything you can, then get out and do your own thing…
^ Whatever this guy says, always.
null&nuller Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > forget about titles - figure out what you actually > wanna DO. The aim in life is to make money & have > fun. That’s about it really. If you’re in your 20s > and working for somebody else then the primary aim > is to LEARN as much as you can so you can get out > and make money & have fun. You only make real > money working for yourself. Yes I know a lot of > traders (prop traders mainly) who make a lot of > money working for somebody else but most of it > goes up their noses and when they wake up next > morning they can’t remember if they had fun or > not. That’s not living. > Forget titles, work like an animal learning > everything you can, then get out and do your own > thing… Sound advice. Thanks!
He/She pretty much calls sell side guys and curses them out.