I mean, this may be a stretch, but maybe, just maybe, as analysts we calculate our own estimates versus relying on management for guidance…
This could be a strech and for all I know ER is now just a bunch of doers who take the guidance and plug it in a static model template.
Just because a handful of IT people came to the CFA curriculum does not mean that a charterholder needs to know any programming language. Those are soft skills.
I don’t think Buffett learned a programming language until he was what 19 … or … 20 … or never.
Gain the skills you need and like to do the job you want. Also, if you end up learning a language that you don’t like, you’ll most likely get a job you don’t want.
No
lol
Analysts spend a lot of time in Excel and if you do a lot of excel, you will eventually find that VBA can be a big help.
If you are going to run your own analysis of historical data, then knowing how to get data out of databases with SQL is awfully useful. Though if you have a Bloomberg terminal or CapitalIQ type account, you can often get that stuff exported directly into excel. I think even Yahoo will export historical prices for you.
Some analysts will want to use regressions or other statistical techniques, especially in fixed income. In that case, some statistical language like R or Matlab or STATA or SAS is useful. I prefer R myself.
Stuff like Python or C++ or Java isn’t really important for analysts unless you are an analyst in a quant shop or high frequency trading outfit.
What about HTML and LaTeX?
Those aren’t programming languages. They’re just markup formats, and as far as I know, they’re pretty irrelevant for traditional analysts, though quant analysts might use LaTeX for writing up complex formulas.
cart : horse
this
cmon son!
Really Itera? Really!? I ask for some logical discourse regarding your famous interview ding and you ignore me!?
Are you really an analyst? I bet you have the CFA since you’re Asian and Asians are good at taking standardized exams. You now strike me as some photographic memory memorizer who just does as he’s told. Don’t question authority, don’t challenge assumptions, and certainly take all management guidance as gospel hard coded in a DCF. You want to hire someone who will do just that; do as I say and do not speak unless spoken to.
You Parrot.
I personally just like quick and dirty Excel models. I never have used VBA that much.
I agree. I actually avoid using VBA unless there is no other option, mostly because when you open it, Excel says “there’s VBA code in here which might be a virus, are you sure?”
I don’t like having my clients worry about what they’re agreeing to, so try to avoid vba when I can.
That said, if you are an analyst and assume that you need to know some programming, VBA is probably the most likely one you’re going to be finding yourself using.
Yeah, I mean most of my submitted models had to be approved by a manager. I would submit about 10-20 per month. Most of the managers would just rubber-stamp the models and approve, but for the ones who wanted to go a bit deeper, they understood a lot of the links without having to go to VBA. They didn’t get VBA and I didn’t either so it was something that was not needed by my projects. However, CHQ would sometimes send these locked models where only an input and output was allowed. That was the only time I used it and sometimes I would change the model design and send back to CHQ for a new model across the whole company. I would usually get approved and we would have a new model across the whole company. It was their job to create the models and my job to analyze them in my own area of responsibility, but I just didn’t like the way some of them functioned and often would just IM the head of the CHQ financial analysis group and get some direct action.
Not programming languages. Merely formatting standards