Financial Analyst

  

See: Sellside Analyst. See: Buyside Analyst.

Like ice cream, financial analysts come in many flavors, but all do the same thing: They analyze money. (Okay, so ice cream doesn't do that.) Is so-and-so a good credit risk? Is this company worthy of a B rating in its bonds? Is this stock a buy, a sell, or a hold? Does my own mother understand what I do?

The lion's share of financial analysts work on Wall Street for "buy" or "sell" side firms. A buy side firm is a mutual fund, hedge fund, or other investment entity charged with managing money for an individual. The sell firms are the stock brokers who sell money for a living. And you have to understand this maybe subtle but very key difference to be able to understand what financial analysts do—or rather, the perspective they have when they're doing their jobs.

Financial analysts on the buy side are trying to find a rationale to buy something—to figure out if or how a given investment opportunity is cheap. Is the world just panicked for no good reason? Is there something fundamentally wrong with this company? Is it actually just fairly priced for all the risks involved?

Financial analysts on the sell side get paid in large part based on the volume of commission dollars flowing through the desk that they cover. So if you follow the media industry for a large investment bank, much of your power and pay will derive from the buy side firms simply liking the work you do. You might even get a "Good Job!" sticker.

The buy side firms pay the investment bank by trading through it. They could buy or sell Disney shares from a hundred different players, but they chose your bank because they like the financial analysis you did on the new Nairobi theme parks and ESPN 37.

There's a subtle but important difference here in the impetus behind the reports financial analysts create. One is about stock ownership; the other is about transacting. The day is spent largely making models based on meetings with management, pasted over a "macro" picture for how the world is doing.

Financial analysts want to run money—that is, they want to become portfolio managers. (See: Mutual Fund Manager and Hedge Fund Managers for details.) Ultimately, they want to make money run right into their wallets.

You could try to argue that people get into this biz because of the love of fierce competition, or because they like the challenge of predicting in what directions the financial world is going to turn, but really, they just want to make money.

And there's no shame in that. Money takes care of your family. Money keeps you out of debt and relieves the stress of worrying how you're going to pay your mortgage or other bills. Money buys fancy Italian cars. Okay, so maybe that last example wasn't quite as noble as the others, but you get the idea.

Because money is the be-all-end-all, practically every moment of a financial analyst's waking life—or of their working life, anyway—is spent with that goal in mind. This means that you won't be strolling into the office at 9:30 am and skipping out at 4:00 pm when you think the boss isn't looking. The more hours you put in, the more money you make, so you're going to put in a lot of overtime.

Don't expect to see your spouse and kids much. It's going to take a Herculean effort on your part to make yourself a major part of their lives so they don't grow up resenting you. (Little known "fact": Hercules was both a tremendous father as well as a financial analyst. He's more famous for his physical exploits, however.)

There is the chance to make some major moolah in this gig...and that's really all it comes down to. If you struggle (at least relative to others in your profession) and can't seem to get ahead, you're a failure. If you have more money than you know what to do with, you're a success. It's as simple as that.

There's no Financial Analyst of the Year Award; no monument will be constructed to memorialize your achievements. You work for the allure of the dollar alone. Actually, the allure of many, many dollars. Analyze that.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What Does a Financial Analyst D...320 Views

00:00

what does a financial analyst do? well this and this and this.

00:10

so after all that analyzing of financial data what does the analyst actually do?

00:15

well she makes recommendations to you know do stuff. generally so that [man frowns at camera]

00:20

investors can make money or not lose money. and to be clear financial analysts

00:25

come in a few different flavors. pick an analyst who works for a stock brokerage

00:28

for example. well they produce reports which the brokerage then gives to

00:32

clients hoping that it will incentivize its clients to trade with the firm and

00:37

give the firm its business, which of course generates commission for the

00:41

stock brokers in theory. the goal here is to make money for the client. but the

00:45

more near-term goal is to you know get the client to pay attention to the firm.

00:49

this is a subtle but very important difference from a financial analyst who [one man stands behind another and shouts]

00:53

works for an investment company ie one who actually invests money for clients

00:58

and is evaluated based on the performance of those investments. a

01:02

financial analyst inside of an investment company like fidelity or

01:06

Franklin or American Funds cares only about how well the investment does. the

01:11

financial analyst does not have to juggle clients or worry about marketing

01:15

to non-professional investors or generating commissions for the firm. all

01:20

they have to worry about is beating the market or their index or whatever

01:23

benchmarks are set out there for them .in addition there are two flavors of [woman hits punching bag]

01:26

financial analysts on Wall Street more or less .by side -those are extensions of

01:31

hedge funds and private equity funds and venture capital funds and mutual funds-

01:35

they're all the people who analyze things from the perspective of a buyer

01:39

only like they buy the stuff they don't have to keep clients happy and get

01:43

Commission business. then you have the sell side which are largely just [graph showing stocks]

01:47

extensions of stockbrokers. stockbrokers hire the analyst to give smart opinions

01:52

on buying selling and holding stocks such that well they can go talk to their

01:56

clients about it and win Commission business from getting them to trade

01:59

through them by recommending Microsoft at forty two dollars and twelve cents

02:03

and stuff like that. there are financial analysts who work for the government as

02:07

well. these guys are usually housed in hell-like divisions of the government

02:11

called the Fed which assesses whether or not the [man in dark glasses behind computer]

02:14

economy is heating up cooling down or see-sawing like a spring day in Chicago.

02:17

well here a financial analyst might be sampling the prices of a half gallon

02:21

carton of GMO milk at 500 grocery stores around the country. they then use that

02:26

data to figure out if the country is feeling inflation deflation or just

02:30

boredom .financial analysts exist inside of corporations as well.

02:34

corporate analysts perform market evaluations to try to help companies [man smiles at camera]

02:38

sell more product for more profit which in turn fuels the company's growth and

02:42

all that other fun stuff. so yes being a financial analyst might not be the

02:46

flashiest job in the world but just think about all that Ben and Jerry's you

02:50

can buy once your commission comes through. [people cheer the ice cream truck]

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