I’m trying to figure out if the firm I’m interviewing with is buy or sell side - I’d hate to assume the wrong thing during the interview, and there are small differences. The reason I have to make a thread about it is, the analysts I’m interviewing with definately publish their research, but the firm also has a significant amount of AUM, telling me there may be a buyside component. Would it be that I’m applying for a sell-side position, but the firm does have a buy-side research branch as well? Just seems like a possible conflict of interest if the firm uses different research for their internal dealing than what they publish… There’s lots of talk of buy vs. sell side, but not much about when the firm has both…
That is…assuming finding their research on Bloomberg means its sell-side (and buy-side isn’t available outside of their offices)
Are they M’n’Ain there?
IB, S&T, FI, ER, you name it they do it
They probably do have both then albeit there is a firewall between the two departments. For instance, most BB have institutional funds, mutual funds, and SMA accounts for big swinging dicks along with a research department selling coverage on various companies.
Now they say that the checks and balances are in place, but I have a hard time believing that if one of the SMA accounts had a huge position in a stock that was also covered by the research department that anything less than a strong buy would be listed.