Investment Analyst
Investment analysts collect information, perform research, and analyze assets, such as stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities. Investment analysts often focus on specific niches to become experts in their chosen fields, such as a particular industry, a geographical region, or a specific asset class. The research is then presented to portfolio or investment managers, often as part of a team in which experts in different fields get to weigh their insights against one another before final recommendations and investment decisions are made. Collaboration is a key part of the job, as are giving presentations and sharing information amongst peers. An investment analyst continuously collects and interprets data, such as company financial statements, price developments, currency adjustments, and yield fluctuations. The information gathering also includes macro developments, such as following a country's political sea changes, climate change and the impact of natural disasters, and emerging industries and service sectors. The primary certification for investment analyst in the United States is Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Most investment analysts work at larger companies, such as investment banks, insurance companies, institutional investors, private equity firms, stockbrokers, or large charities.
Asset Management or Investment Management
Investment managers help clients by managing their money. Clients can include individuals, educational institutions, insurance companies, and pension funds. Investment managers perform financial analysis, portfolio allocation between bonds and stocks, equity research, and issue buy and sell recommendations.
Much of the planning revolves around an income and spending budget, with advice about the types of financial investments suitable for the client. Asset managers and investment advisors recommend specific investments, sometimes to individuals but most often to managers of investment funds such as mutual funds. Investment advice is usually based on research, which can be of many kinds.
Banking and Investments
Commercial Banking - Commercial banks provide banking services to individuals, small businesses and large organizations.
Investment Banking - investment bankers are financial advisors to corporations and, in some cases, to governments. They help their clients raise money. That may mean issuing stock, floating a bond, negotiating the acquisition of a rival company, or arranging the sale of the company itself. Two of the primary activities of investment banks are underwriting debt financing and the issuance of equity securities, as in an initial public offering (IPO), and advising and facilitating mergers and acquisitions (M&As) for companies, including leveraged buyouts. The firms engaged in the investment banking industry are commonly classified into three categories: bulge bracket banks, middle-market banks, and boutique banks. Investment banks include: JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley. Some other global giants include Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Credit Suisse, and UBS.
Venture Capital and Private Equity - The private equity sector is broadly defined as investing in a company through a negotiated process. Investments typically involve a transformational, value-added, active management strategy.
Corporate Finance
Corporate/private finance involves helping a company raise capital needed for new projects and ongoing operations by compiling and analyzing financial information. The main activities are developing and executing financing programs and interfacing with the rest of the company via reports and presentations.
Insurance
Careers in insurance involve helping individuals and businesses manage risk to protect themselves from catastrophic losses and to anticipate potential risk problems. Additionally, firms are now looking at risk from a broader prospective known as enterprise risk management which encompasses liability risk, currency risk, interest rate risk, and property risk.
Real Estate
Careers in Real Estate include residential, commercial and property management. Residential real estate brokers bring buyers and sellers of individual properties together, assist them in setting a price, and arrange for appraisals, inspections, and other services. Commercial real estate brokers facilitate both the lease and sale of commercial properties, and frequently also provide ancillary advisory and appraisal services. Property management companies are involved with marketing, financing, and building operations.
Sales and Trading
Sales and trading involves buying and selling financial instruments such as: stocks, bonds, debts, futures, and options. These instruments are bought and sold in exchanges such as: the New York Stock Exchange, The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and NASDAQ. Both brokers and traders buy and sell. Traders work for an investment firm and buy/sell/trade large amounts of stocks or bonds using the firm's capital. Brokers sell on behalf of themselves or clients. Additionally, there are careers in trading commodities (such as oil) or future trading. Future traders do not actually buy anything but speculate on the future direction of the price in the commodity they are trading. This field of finance also includes asset managers and investment advisors who recommend specific investments, sometimes to individuals but most often to managers of investment funds such as mutual funds. Investment advice is usually based on research, which can be of many kinds.
Fintech
Fintech, or financial technology, refers to the technological innovation in the design and delivery of financial services and products. Technology in finance continues to evolve; advancements include the use of Big Data, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning to evaluate investment opportunities, optimize portfolios, and mitigate risks. Popular careers in fintech include more general technology careers, such as cybersecurity and AI, and those increasingly more pertinent to the asset management industry: blockchain development and quantitative analysis. A fintech career path requires a strong focus on computer science, programming, mathematics, and data science, in addition to a firm understanding of the financial market, including financial instruments and products.