What do financial analysts do?

[Antoneo]

I know a person who is one but when I ask he is vague about it. What do these guys do and what is college like for them?

 

[upsciLLion]

Originally posted by: Antoneo
I know a person who is one but when I ask he is vague about it. What do these guys do and what is college like for them?

The first rule of financial analyzing is that you do not talk about financial analyzing.

 

[RossMAN]

Analyze finances!

 

[KLin]

Originally posted by: upsciLLion

Originally posted by: Antoneo
I know a person who is one but when I ask he is vague about it. What do these guys do and what is college like for them?

The first rule of financial analyzing is that you do not talk about financial analyzing.

The second fule of financial analyzing is, YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FINANCIAL ANALYZING! :evil:

 

[dsfunk]

They gamble and collect commissions on their picks, win or lose.

 

[bubbadu]

My mom does it. She works in finicial aid dealing with students and parents. All I know is that I get to go to school for free. 😛

 

[blahblah99]

They play with other people's money.

 

[glugglug]

Here is what a financial analyst does:

Step 1: Buy stock in a specific company.
Step 2: Put together a total BS report about why that company is worth more and should be invested in.
Step 3: SELL!
Step 4: SHORT!
Step 5: Put together a total BS report about how that company is in trouble and people should get out.
Step 6: Cover the short
Step 7: Pick another company to repeat steps 1-6 with.

 

[Turkish]

There's a misconception about financial analysts. Most people think of them as financial advisors. WRONG. Financial Analysts do tons of research, they try to estimate stock prices, value options, guess volatility over a period of time, estimate earnings (related to stock pricing, which relates to option pricing), etc. etc. Financial Advisors on the other hand, read reports written by the analysts and try to advise their clients 😛 I'm hoping I can be a Financial (derivatives) analyst one day 🙂 Hopefuly after I get my masters 🙂

My Investment Analysis professor is leaving academics because JP Morgan offered him $1.5 Million 🙁 I was hoping he'd stay till I graduate cause I wanted to take a couple more classes from him. Ridiculously smart guy.

 

[five40]

They are people people. They deal with the customers damn it.

 

[Antoneo]

Originally posted by: The Boss
There's a misconception about financial analysts. Most people think of them as financial advisors. WRONG. Financial Analysts do tons of research, they try to estimate stock prices, value options, guess volatility over a period of time, estimate earnings (related to stock pricing, which relates to option pricing), etc. etc. Financial Advisors on the other hand, read reports written by the analysts and try to advise their clients 😛 I'm hoping I can be a Financial (derivatives) analyst one day 🙂 Hopefuly after I get my masters 🙂

My Investment Analysis professor is leaving academics because JP Morgan offered him $1.5 Million 🙁 I was hoping he'd stay till I graduate cause I wanted to take a couple more classes from him. Ridiculously smart guy.

Does this require high levels of socialization or is this job more of a "skill" thing (sorry I lack coherence at this time in the morning)?

 

[Michael]

Financial Analyst is a generic term that covers a bunch of different positions.

They do not have to just analyze stock or other forms of investments.

Essentially, they're knowledge workers that take financial data and turn it into information.

Michael

 

[glugglug]

Originally posted by: Michael
Financial Analyst is a euphemism that covers a bunch of different theives.

They do not have to just give bad stock advice or poorly "manage" mutual funds to perform worse than the index.

Essentially, they're market manipulators that take create bogus "reports" to further their personal investments.

Fixed.

 

[ski2slow]

Financial analysts at my company are accountants.

 

[theNEOone]

i wrote an entire book in one of my business classes about financial analysts. the name 'financial analyst' can meen so many things - it can be an accountant, a CFO, an i-banker. it's a very general term. the way i can put it best on this board is like calling someone an engineer. to the average person, 'engineering' is a profession. but to people more familiar w/ the 'profession,' a civil engineer is quite different from a bioengineer. get the picture?


=|

 

[HamSupLo]

they like spreadsheets

 

[Anonemous]

Originally posted by: bubbadu
My mom does it. She works in finicial aid dealing with students and parents. All I know is that I get to go to school for free. 😛

Yea, but it also depends on your school, sometimes they impose a strict 3.7+ GPA requirement that you have to maintain in order to keep this benefit. So pick an easy major. 🙂

 

[Garuda]

I interviewed for a financial analyst internship at Ford Motor Company about 1 and half years ago.

Now that I think about it, they never properly explained what exactly they do, and it didn't seem particularly important to them that people coming in know much about finance or even the auto industry from the questions they asked during the interview.

If I were to guess, though, most of their people probably put together Discounted Cash Flow reports of various proposed projects (e.g. "Should we build a truck plant in Egypt?") These reports contain a detailed projection of money going out and coming in on the project and its alternatives. It also weighs the risk to come up with a present value sum of the money they expect it to generate (or lose, as it may be).

 

[spidey07]

Its a generic term for "analyst"

Meaning they analize data, specifically financial data.

When I think financial analyst I think entry level position in the finance department of a company.