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. 039How would you analyse a retailer?Sector: consumerIntermediatetechnicalBank of AmericaConsumer and Retail · London · 2026

   Say this

   Same-store sales and gross margin drive everything. Decompose comps into traffic, basket size and price, then check whether margin is being bought with discounting, and watch inventory as the early warning.

   Then walk it

   1. Revenue splits into comparable store sales and square footage growth. Comps are the quality signal; new stores can mask a deteriorating base.
   2. Decompose comps further into transactions and average ticket, and ticket into units and price. A comp driven by price in an inflationary period is weaker than one driven by traffic.
   3. Gross margin is where the truth sits. Rising sales with falling gross margin means discounting, which is buying revenue rather than earning it.
   4. Inventory is the leading indicator. If inventory grows faster than sales for two quarters, markdowns are coming and the margin will follow. This is the single most reliable early signal in retail.
   5. Then the cost structure: occupancy and labour are largely fixed, so retail has high operating leverage. A two-point comp swing moves EBIT far more than it moves revenue.
   6. Then the structural questions: online mix and its margin, private label penetration, and whether the store estate is an asset or a liability. And check the lease liabilities, because a retailer's real leverage is usually in the leases.

   Where candidates lose it

   Focusing on revenue growth without decomposing comps, and ignoring inventory. Inventory-to-sales is the metric that separates people who have covered retail from people who have read about it.

   Expect next

   • What does rising inventory tell you?
   • How do you treat lease liabilities?
   • How would you value it against an online-only peer?

   Reported by candidates at Bank of America (Consumer and Retail, London, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 049How do you build a short thesis, and how is it different from a long?Stock pitchHardsuperdayBank of AmericaInvestment Banking · New York · 2023

   Say this

   A short needs a catalyst and a timeline in a way a long does not, because the payoff is capped, the loss is unlimited, and you pay to hold it. Valuation alone is never a short thesis.

   Then walk it

   1. The asymmetry: the most you make is 100 percent, the most you lose is unlimited, and the position grows against you as it moves the wrong way. That inverts the position sizing logic.
   2. Carry costs: you pay the borrow fee and you owe the dividend. A hard-to-borrow name can cost 20 percent a year, which means being right slowly is the same as being wrong.
   3. So the thesis must have a mechanism and a clock: an accounting problem that surfaces at a specific filing, a refinancing wall, a patent expiry, a competitor launch, guidance that cannot be met.
   4. The strongest short categories are structural decline the market is extrapolating, accounting and cash conversion problems, balance sheet stress, and promotional management with a history.
   5. 'It is expensive' is not a thesis. Expensive things stay expensive for years, and short squeezes happen precisely in the crowded expensive names.
   6. And check the crowding before you enter: days to cover, short interest as a percentage of float, and options positioning. A crowded short with a stretched balance sheet on the other side is how funds get carried out.

   Where candidates lose it

   Pitching a short on valuation with no catalyst. That is the single most common failure, and experienced investors will immediately ask what makes it happen and what the borrow costs. Have both answers.

   Expect next

   • What is the borrow cost?
   • How crowded is the short?
   • How would you size it differently from a long?

   Reported by candidates at Bank of America (Investment Banking, New York, 2023). 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.