Skills required for an Equity Research Analyst

Hi friends,

What are the key skills you deem necessary for an Equity Research Analyst?

This would help me work on these skills and may be take up an internal mobility within my organisation a couple of years down the line :slight_smile:

Networking skills, communications skills, spreadsheet modeling skills.

Numchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer skills

Read the articles in my signature

Equity research skills

wow so funny…

…or have big t*ts

dont stray away from the pack

BS skills

Research skills, financial modeling skills, soft skills, and composition.

be able to come in after a 2 day binger and get your shit done lol

Communication/sales/networking skills are 50% of the job nowadays, if not more.

For the rest: industry expertise, equity valuation, spreadsheet modelling, accounting standards, curiosity, well educated (economics and business in particular, of course).

+1

Thanks everyone!

The skill to do as you are told or leave.

@sooraj

The knowledge and qualifications already earned more or less equips you with the skills that you require to be an average equity research analyst (ERA) which include optimal skills related to researching, financial modelling, report writing, analysis of financial statements and ratio analysis etc. Being a CFA and because of the minimal discussions that you may have had before putting up this question here you are aware most of the skills required to become an ERA. But the skills that ultimately contribute to stand out as an ERA and need to be developed by paying special attention besides those text-book type skills are:

a. Logical thinking and reasoning skills focussed on analysing the strength and weaknesses of a problem and weighing the comparative pros and cons of the solutions (you have come up with or your team members have suggested). For arriving at the ‘best fit’ you need to have the capacity to think independently – this requires conscious training of mind of weighing all the aspects of the problem or solution , explicit or implicit, as everyone has some inherent biases while doing so. For being outstanding in this one must develop a ‘critical thinking’ approach (i.e. thinking smart rather than thinking hard!). You must acquire and develop critical thinking skill. The net has plethora of links to do so but if you are short of time see this comprehensive document (download the pdf)

b. The above directly implies that you must strengthen your decision making skill. This is critical as more often than not you will be facing to chose among two or more equally attractive options as a result of many variables in your research. Even if you are highly self-motivated and good at complex problem solving (both being essential prerequisites to succeed as a ERA) the decision making becomes more complex due to inherent nature of accountability in the job. After all at the end it is ‘your’ research and ‘your’ findings and recommendations – this makes the decision making process all the more intense and profound. Your intellectual curiosity, focus and creativity will strengthen your research instinct but solid decision making skill only will help in solving the problem at hand fast.

c. Finally, to succeed as ERA you must be driven to deliver results, for which timely and quick thinking skill is an asset. To match the ever changing scenario (unlike most of other normal research activities) you will have to have the ability to quickly judge the impact, trend and accordingly modify / adjust your research process / direction in time, even the conclusion before your work is final. As in most case you will be leading or be a part of a research team your timely and quick thinking will save time of others as well as add value to your output.

Hope this will help you.

Best of Luck

Thanks a ton mygos, so nice of you to elaborate in so much in detail. Good thing, I have an year and half to work over this and make this shift in my own organisation.

Once again thank you very much.

Thank you googleboy…