Hey AF, So I got hired in Nov 2010 to join a structured products group and the work entails writing memos on certain ABS asset classes. It’s the first time I do financial writing. Econ papers were okay for me back in college, but I never really had to form an opinion before. It was always more cause and effect, or proving my hypothesis given my empirical research findings. The papers I’ve written before where I had to express an opinion weren’t on a financial topic. Anyway, I’m based in NYC and was wondering if any of you can recommend a class or self-study product that helped you get better at financial writing with your respective jobs (if applicable). Thanks!!
I don’t know of any classes, but I would suggest reading anything you can find that relates to your industry to pick up on the lingo and form. Reading other finance laden publications like the WSJ, Bloomberg, etc… could also help. Also, I would also just start writing in your free time and see where that goes and have a friend or colleague critique your style.
What chuck said. And write in the third person. Avoid unsubstantiated claims. You’ll do fine, you already got the job, the rest’ll come with time.
what about the abs are you supposed to write? are you trying to buy/sell or advise?
I would actually recommend that you pick up a GMAT practice book (Kaplan, Princeton Review, etc.) and go through the writing/grammar/sentence correction sections. I know this sounds really weird, but there is some great information there.
Mimic what other people do in your dept. Pass it on to your boss / mentor for comment.
Black Swan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What chuck said. And write in the third person. > Avoid unsubstantiated claims. You’ll do fine, you > already got the job, the rest’ll come with time. Good advice as always. Other things I’d suggest would be: -Read lots of other people’s work. It’s like watching athletes better than yourself; you’ll pick up the right habits. -You’ll have lots of questions, and that’s OK, but be sure to always ask the lowest-ranked person who can give you the correct answer. Undoubtedly, your manager will usually will know what you are asking, but get in the habit of bothering the least-senior-employees who can give you the correct answers. You’ll save some face when you ask facepalm-type questions. -Figure out what industry magazines and websites people in your office read (beyond WSJ, Barrons, etc). These will be more specific, but reading them will help you get a finger on the pulse of your universe more quickly.
Write an article and send it to Chad. He just posted a call for article writers: http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?31,1246630 If you are not eaten alive on AF, you’ll be set.
thanks for the input everyone!! And IEV, it’ll be interesting to see if Chad will block us from overly criticizing the articles other AFers write for him… @ mar350, I write about anything happening in the abs sector but focus on various deals we monitor. more buy side related.