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. 025How large is the hedge fund industry?Industry knowledgeIntermediatetechnicalMan GroupEquity Hedge · London · 2016

   Say this

   Roughly $4 to $5 trillion in assets under management globally, across something like 10,000 funds. If you do not know the figure, build it: the largest firms run $50 to $100 billion each, and the top twenty or so account for a large share of the total.

   Then walk it

   1. The headline number is around $4 to $5 trillion, which is worth knowing if you are interviewing at a hedge fund.
   2. If you are unsure, derive it. The biggest multi-managers run on the order of $60 to $100 billion. Twenty firms at an average of $50 billion is a trillion, and the long tail of thousands of smaller funds adds several more.
   3. For context, that is small relative to global equity market capitalisation of well over $100 trillion, and small relative to the roughly $12 trillion BlackRock alone manages. Hedge funds punch above their weight because of leverage and turnover, not size.
   4. The structural point worth adding: assets have concentrated heavily into a handful of large multi-manager platforms over the past decade, while the number of small funds has fallen. That concentration is the defining industry trend.
   5. And the fee model has moved with it: pass-through expenses at the big platforms rather than the traditional two and twenty.

   Where candidates lose it

   Guessing wildly with no derivation, or quoting a number you cannot contextualise. Being asked this at a hedge fund is a test of whether you know the industry you are applying to. Know the figure and one structural trend.

   Expect next

   • How has that changed in the last decade?
   • What is a multi-manager platform?
   • Why do you want to work at a hedge fund rather than long only?

   Reported by candidates at Man Group (Equity Hedge, London, 2016). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 026What makes up a fund's net asset value?Industry knowledgeCoretechnicalMan GroupEquity Hedge · Boston · 2019

   Say this

   The market value of everything the fund owns, less everything it owes, divided by units outstanding. Assets are the positions plus cash and receivables; liabilities are shorts, borrowings, accrued fees and payables.

   Then walk it

   1. Assets: the mark-to-market value of long positions, cash, margin held at the prime broker, dividends and interest receivable, and unrealised gains on derivatives.
   2. Liabilities: short positions valued at market, leverage and margin borrowings, accrued management and performance fees, redemptions payable, and unrealised losses on derivatives.
   3. Divide the net figure by units outstanding to get NAV per unit. That per-unit figure is what investors subscribe and redeem at.
   4. The judgement sits in valuation. Liquid listed equities are straightforward. Illiquid or level three assets are marked to model, and that is where NAV becomes an estimate rather than a fact.
   5. Which is why the practical questions matter: who strikes the NAV, how often, and is there an independent administrator? A manager marking its own illiquid book is a governance concern, and saying so shows you understand why the question is asked.

   Where candidates lose it

   Giving the formula and stopping. The interesting content is valuation of illiquid positions and the role of the independent administrator. That is what an operations-aware investor actually cares about.

   Expect next

   • How do you value a level three asset?
   • Who strikes the NAV?
   • What is a side pocket?

   Reported by candidates at Man Group (Equity Hedge, Boston, 2019). 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.