Equity Research interview preparation

Questions

100

Traced to a firm

72

Firms

45

Updated

September 2026

Asked at

All firmsMorningstar12Man Group6Balyasny Asset Management5BLBlackRock5FTFranklin Templeton5MSCI5Jefferies4CSCredit Suisse3Fidelity Investments3Moody's3Perella Weinberg Partners3Point723S&P Global3The Vanguard Group3WMWellington Management3Advent International2Apollo Global Management2Bank of America2Carlyle Group2DED.E. Shaw2Houlihan Lokey2HSBC2Piper Sandler2Sequoia Capital2SSState Street2Viking Global Investors2WBWilliam Blair2ACAQR Capital Management1BGBaupost Group1BMBNY Mellon1Centerview Partners1Coatue Management1Goldman Sachs1GSGuggenheim Securities1HWHarris Williams1Insight Partners1Invesco1Mizuho1Moelis & Company1MSMorgan Stanley1PIMCO1SCSchroders1Scotiabank1T. Rowe Price1TSTruist Securities1

Topic

All topicsResearch process9Stock pitch6Company analysis8Investment philosophy5Valuation14Modelling2Portfolio and risk8Macro8Sector knowledge2Accounting8Career and fit12Industry knowledge6Quantitative research1Sector: technology3Sector: consumer1Sector: healthcare1Sector: energy1Sector: financials2Sector: industrials1Case and estimation2

Level

AnyCoreIntermediateHard

Type

AnyTechnicalCaseFitBrainteaserMarket view

1. 002What moves a stock?Research processIntermediatetechnicalBalyasny Asset ManagementEquity Hedge · Chicago · 2021

   Say this

   Changes in expectations, not the level of results. A stock moves when the market revises its forecast of future earnings, or revises the multiple it will pay for them. Everything else is noise around those two.

   Then walk it

   1. Price equals earnings times multiple. So there are exactly two levers, and every catalyst works through one of them.
   2. Earnings revisions are the bigger driver over any meaningful horizon. That is why the sell-side obsesses over guidance and why a beat with a cut to guidance sells off.
   3. Multiple changes come from the rate environment, from perceived risk, and from a change in the durability of growth. A company that convinces the market its growth is recurring rather than cyclical gets re-rated without changing a single forecast.
   4. In the short run, positioning and flows matter enormously. A crowded long with everyone already in it can fall on good news because there is nobody left to buy.
   5. So the practical question for a research analyst is never 'are results good' but 'are results better than what is discounted'. That is why the expectations framework is the job.

   Where candidates lose it

   Answering 'earnings' and stopping. That misses the multiple entirely, and it misses the central insight that it is the delta versus expectations that matters, not the absolute result.

   Expect next

   • How do you think about valuation drivers?
   • Why would a stock fall on a beat?
   • How do you measure what is priced in?

   Reported by candidates at Balyasny Asset Management (Equity Hedge, Chicago, 2021). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 004Pitch me a stock.Stock pitchIntermediateevery roundMan GroupEquity Hedge · London · 2016MSMorgan StanleySales and Trading · Tokyo · 2025Balyasny Asset ManagementGeneralist · New York · 2020

   Say this

   Recommendation and target first, business in two sentences, then the variant view, the catalyst, the risk, and what would make you wrong. Ninety seconds, and the variant view is the only part that counts.

   Then walk it

   1. Open with the trade: 'Long X at 40, target 55, about 35 percent upside over 12 to 18 months.' Never build up to the recommendation.
   2. Two sentences on what the business actually does, so the interviewer knows you are not pitching a ticker.
   3. The variant view: what do you believe that consensus does not, and why are you right? 'The street models 8 percent growth; I think it is 14 because the new contract has not been added to numbers yet.' Quantify the gap.
   4. The catalyst and timing: what makes the market agree with you, and roughly when. A view with no catalyst is a value trap.
   5. Valuation: what multiple you are paying, what the peers trade at, what the reverse DCF implies.
   6. Risks and the falsifier: the two things that break the thesis, and the specific data point you would watch. Ending on what would make you wrong is what makes an analyst sound honest rather than promotional.

   Where candidates lose it

   Pitching a household mega-cap with a thesis lifted from the financial press. If the reason is in the newspaper, it is in the price. Pick something slightly off the beaten path and know its numbers cold.

   Expect next

   • Are you sure that thesis can be backed up? What if their costs do not fall?
   • What is the bear case?
   • How would you hedge it?

   Reported by candidates at Man Group (Equity Hedge, London, 2016); Morgan Stanley (Sales and Trading, Tokyo, 2025); Balyasny Asset Management (Generalist, New York, 2020). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

3. 010How do you build a model that is detailed enough to be useful but simple enough that you can cover a lot of companies?ModellingHardtechnicalBalyasny Asset ManagementEquity Research · New York · 2026

   Say this

   Model deeply only where the variance is. For most companies two or three line items drive the outcome, so those get detailed driver builds and everything else gets a margin assumption or a percentage of sales.

   Then walk it

   1. Identify the swing factors first. For a retailer it is same-store sales and gross margin. For a bank it is net interest margin and provisions. For a software company it is net retention and sales efficiency. Model those properly.
   2. Everything else goes to ratios: other opex as a percent of revenue, working capital as days, tax at the guided rate. Precision there adds nothing and costs you maintenance time.
   3. Standardise the template across the coverage universe so the same row does the same thing in every file. That is what actually makes 15 names maintainable, because updating a quarter becomes mechanical.
   4. Build it around the disclosure you will actually receive. If the company only reports two segments, a five-segment model will be broken every quarter.
   5. And keep a one-page output: the drivers, the earnings bridge versus consensus, and the valuation. If the summary tab tells the story, the depth underneath can stay limited.
   6. The test I would apply: can I update this model in 20 minutes on results day? If not, it is too complex to cover 15 names with.

   Where candidates lose it

   Saying you would build the most detailed model possible. On the buy side, model complexity is a liability. The insight being tested is that modelling effort should be allocated to variance, not spread evenly.

   Expect next

   • How many names can one analyst realistically cover?
   • What goes on your summary tab?
   • How do you update on results day?

   Reported by candidates at Balyasny Asset Management (Equity Research, New York, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

4. 011How would you hedge a name that does not have a close public comparable?Portfolio and riskHardsuperdayBalyasny Asset ManagementEquity Research · New York · 2026

   Say this

   Hedge the exposures rather than the company. Decompose the position into its factor risks, market beta, sector, style, currency, commodity input, then hedge each with whatever liquid instrument matches it.

   Then walk it

   1. Start by decomposing: run the stock against factor returns and see what it is actually exposed to. Often a 'unique' business is really a bundle of common exposures.
   2. Hedge the market beta with an index future, sized on the regression beta rather than one.
   3. Hedge sector exposure with the closest sector ETF, accepting that the fit is imperfect. An imperfect hedge that removes 60 percent of the variance is better than no hedge.
   4. Hedge the specific input if there is one: a fuel-exposed business can be partly hedged with the commodity, a foreign earner with FX forwards.
   5. Then accept and size for the residual. The leftover idiosyncratic risk is the part you are actually being paid for, so the honest answer is that you hedge what you do not have a view on and hold what you do.
   6. And the practical constraint on a multi-manager platform: the risk system will impose factor limits anyway, so the hedge is often not optional. Saying that shows you understand how these seats actually operate.

   Where candidates lose it

   Reaching for a single 'closest competitor' short. If there were a close comp the question would not have been asked. The expected answer is factor decomposition, and naming the residual idiosyncratic risk as the intended exposure.

   Expect next

   • What residual risk are you left with?
   • How would you size the position?
   • What factor limits would you expect to operate under?

   Reported by candidates at Balyasny Asset Management (Equity Research, New York, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

5. 086Give me a two-line thesis on a company you would short.Stock pitchHardsuperdayBalyasny Asset ManagementGeneralist · New York · 2020

   Say this

   One line on the structural problem, one line on the catalyst that forces the market to see it. Something like: the company's growth is funded by discounting that is destroying its unit economics, and the covenant test at the next refinancing will expose it.

   Then walk it

   1. Line one has to be a mechanism, not a valuation. 'Expensive' is not a thesis. 'Gross margin has fallen 600 basis points over six quarters while revenue growth held up, because they are buying volume' is a mechanism.
   2. Line two is the clock: the specific event that makes the market agree. A refinancing, a covenant test, a contract renewal, a patent expiry, a competitor launch, a change in the disclosure that removes the cover.
   3. Then the numbers that support it, in one breath: the trend in the metric, and the gap between what management guides and what the trend implies.
   4. Then the risk: what would squeeze you. A cheap balance sheet, a possible takeover, heavy existing short interest, or a founder who could take it private.
   5. And the practicalities: borrow cost and days to cover, because a 20 percent borrow makes a slow thesis unprofitable even if you are right.
   6. Prepare a real one before you walk in. Being unable to construct a short is a common failure in buy-side interviews, and it reveals that you have only ever thought about why things go up.

   Where candidates lose it

   Not having one prepared. Long-short interviews ask for both sides, and candidates almost always have three longs and no shorts. Prepare one short properly, including the borrow cost and the squeeze risk.

   Expect next

   • What is the borrow?
   • What would squeeze you?
   • How would you size it?

   Reported by candidates at Balyasny Asset Management (Generalist, New York, 2020). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

Firm tags come from public, anonymous candidate reports on Wall Street Oasis: strong signal, not sworn testimony. Firms are named as the places a question was reported, not as partners of Fin Maverick. Answers are written for this page to show how to think out loud; they are not scripts to recite.