Private equity recruiters have seen better days. Once upon a time, private equity firms did most of their hiring through recruitment agencies, but industry sources suggest that PE shops are now doing up to 75% of their hiring themselves. However, if you are looking for a new job, there is little to lose by contacting a [...]

Investment banking internship reading list
Many invesment banks send their interns reading lists so that they can prepare for their internship. Here is what the reading list from a main bank looked like last year: (Do you want to go “pro”? Check our more comprehensive investing and trading reading list). BOOKS • Stocks, Bonds, Options, Futures (Stuart R. Veale, New York Institute [...]
Top financial recruitment agencies in London
Financial recruiters have seen better days. Once upon a time, investment banks did most of their hiring through them, but industry sources suggest that banks and other financial firms are now doing up to 75%. of their hiring themselves. However, if you are looking for a new job, there is little to lose by contacting [...]

Investment banking compensation ranking
Now that bonus compensation figures for 2012 are out, here is the ranking average front office employee compensation at the top firms. Blackstone seems the place to be, and Deutsche Bank appears as the most notable payer among bulge brackets. On the other side, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse have been rather stingy, and RBS… [...]

List of new finance companies in London
Equity-Research – If you’re looking for a job in financial services, and are struggling to get into a big bank, or if you’re already working for a big bank and would prefer to work for a hedge fund, private equity fund or fund management boutique, this list is for you. There’s no guarantee that they’re all [...]

Equity research interview preparation
This guide is meant to tackle all the “How do I prepare for an interview with X team” questions, since 90% of the preparation is the same regardless of the industry or product group that you are interviewing for. The Fit The fit part of the interview (anything not talking about markets or brain teasers) [...]

Some hedge funds are hiring
If you’re trying to get into a hedge fund you could start by looking at Brevan Howard in Switzerland. According to Bloomberg, they want to hire around 35 people in Geneva before the middle of next year. Bloomberg doesn’t state whether these will be people traders or support staff, so unfortunately most are likely to be the latter. If you’re not keen on moving to Switzerland [...]

Research at main investment banks vs independent shops
There is a lot of misunderstanding out there regarding the equity research experience at the bulge bracket investment banks in comparison to that at boutiques or smaller independent shops, with some people claiming that the one and only thing to take into account is how your lead analyst is ranked on the ii or Extel [...]

List of top hedge funds in London
Here is a list of the top hedge funds based in London. Only funds with assets under management over $1 billion. Most of them use relative value or long-short strategies, but there are some doing macro, credit, fixed income, general arbitrage and so on. Brevan Howard (www.brevanhoward.com) – one of the largest European hedge funds Man Investments [...]

All you need to know to pass the CFA level 2 exam
The CFA exams are just around the corner, and level 2 is definitely the one with more material to cover. However, you don’t actually have to know EVERYTHING to pass this exam (65% is usually enough to get through). Going through past exam papers for the last 10 years, here is a list of what [...]

