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. 012What is the yield curve, what does it mean when it inverts, and why do people treat that as a recession indicator?MacroIntermediatetechnicalSSState StreetEquity Research · Boston · 2020

   Say this

   It plots government bond yields against maturity. Normally it slopes upward because investors demand more for lending longer. An inversion means short rates exceed long rates, which says the market expects the central bank to be cutting in future.

   Then walk it

   1. The normal upward slope comes from term premium and from expected growth and inflation.
   2. An inversion means the market expects policy rates to be lower in two years than today. Rates get cut when growth is weak, so an inversion is a forecast of weakness rather than a cause of it.
   3. The track record is why people watch it: in the US, a sustained 2s10s or 3m10y inversion has preceded every recession since the 1960s, usually by 12 to 18 months.
   4. There is also a causal channel, not just a signal. Banks borrow short and lend long, so an inverted curve compresses net interest margin and reduces the incentive to extend credit. Tighter credit slows the economy.
   5. The honest caveats: it has produced false positives, the lead time is long and variable, and quantitative easing distorted the term premium enough that the signal may be weaker than history suggests. An analyst who names that is more credible than one who treats it as a law.

   Where candidates lose it

   Describing the shape without explaining the mechanism, or treating the indicator as infallible. Both the expectations channel and the bank lending channel should appear, along with at least one reason to doubt it.

   Expect next

   • Which part of the curve do you watch?
   • How does an inversion affect bank earnings?
   • What is happening to the curve right now?

   Reported by candidates at State Street (Equity Research, Boston, 2020). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 013How does a falling oil price affect oil-exporting nations?MacroIntermediatetechnicalSSState StreetEquity Research · Boston · 2020

   Say this

   It hits the fiscal balance, the current account and the currency simultaneously. Export revenue falls, the budget goes into deficit because most producers need a high fiscal breakeven price, and the currency comes under pressure.

   Then walk it

   1. Export revenue is the first channel. For a country where hydrocarbons are most of exports, a halving of the price halves the external income.
   2. The fiscal channel is the sharper one. Most producers have a fiscal breakeven oil price, often far above the marginal cost of production, because the budget funds subsidies and public employment. Below it, the deficit widens fast.
   3. Currency pressure follows. A floating currency depreciates, which cushions the local-currency revenue but imports inflation. A pegged currency instead burns reserves to defend the peg, which is why pegged producers face the harder adjustment.
   4. Second-round effects: sovereign wealth funds sell assets to fund the deficit, capital expenditure on projects is cut, and the non-oil economy contracts because it is largely funded by oil receipts.
   5. The differentiator between countries is buffers. A producer with a large sovereign fund and low breakeven can absorb years of weak prices. One with high breakeven and thin reserves faces a currency or a debt crisis. That comparison is the actual analysis.

   Where candidates lose it

   Stopping at 'they earn less money'. The examinable content is the fiscal breakeven concept and the difference between a floating and a pegged currency response. Name both and the answer is complete.

   Expect next

   • Which producers are most vulnerable?
   • What happens to their sovereign wealth funds?
   • How would you position for it in equities?

   Reported by candidates at State Street (Equity Research, Boston, 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.