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General Description

This is an ideal career for analytical thinkers.  A financial analyst, often referred to as a securities analyst, equity analyst, or investment analyst is a person who analyses financial information.

Career Advice - Financial Analyst Career

Researching macroeconomic and microeconomic conditions, along with company fundamentals, are part of the job. You also communicate business, sector and industry recommendations, write reports on companies, and give your opinion of the company's investment potential with a rating, such as "buy," "sell," or "hold” to brokers, traders or clients.

You usually study an entire industry, assessing current trends in business practices, products, and industry competition, whilst keeping up to date with new regulations or policies that may affect the industry and have an effect on earnings. You get company information by studying public records, asking questions of the management and using spreadsheet and statistical software packages to analyse financial data, spot trends, and to develop forecasts. As an experienced senior analyst you may make the decision to buy or sell for the company or client.

What you do every day

Every financial analyst’s day will start with reviewing the news, for instance Bloomberg or the Australian Financial Review. A good deal of time is spent every morning analysing any overnight events in other parts of the world which might have an impact when the market opens in Australia. You then meet with other analysts and directors to talk about movements or potential trends.

Your main focus of the day is to analyse information and internal or external client requests. Using both technical analysis (from historical trends and numbers) and fundamental analysis (from reported activities and forecast trends) relevant to your sector or group, you report your comments. You work with spreadsheets, databases, and statistical and graphics packages. These assist you in developing recommendations for senior management, preparing detailed presentations, and financial reports. These recommendations include forecasting, cost benefit analysis, trending and results analysis. You also interpret financial transactions and must check documents for their compliance with government regulations.

In a stock brokerage house or in an investment bank, you read company financial statements and analyse commodity prices, sales, costs, expenses, and tax rates in order to determine a company's value and project their future earnings. In investment banking departments or banking firms you work in a team, analysing the future prospects of companies that want to sell shares to the public for the first time. You can also work in mergers and acquisitions departments, preparing analyses on the costs and benefits of a proposed merger or takeover.

You may travel to companies to get a first-hand look at company operations and attend conferences with colleagues who share the same specialty. End of market signals the end of trading but the analysis is continuous.

Personality that best fits this occupation

Successful financial analysts must be strong-willed and have confidence in your well researched recommendations. It is essential that you trust your instincts and not follow the general market. An ability to communicate effectively and be personable is important, since you will be writing reports as well as presenting to a diverse group of business units and customers. It is also necessary that you have a high attention to detail and a capacity to sit and crunch numbers or sift through information for long periods.

Best thing about this career

The lure of being a financial analyst is a sense of empowerment, ability to earn good money and a fast-paced, dynamic environment. The sense of empowerment comes from the information you supply and its uses. People rely on you to get it right, and when you do it’s fantastic.

The quality and accuracy of your recommendations build your reputation. If you are good, the word spreads that you’re hot. People then want your time, and your ability to earn a lot of money substantially increases. The environment is fast-paced, diverse and shared by like-minded individuals.

Worst thing about this career

The downsides can include: working long hours; being under pressure from internal and external sources especially when markets get hot; going through the same process over and over again for different data sets and having a never ending supply of analysis to be done. If these downsides bother you, then you might not find financial analysis to your liking.