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. 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.

2. 058How is sell-side research paid for, and how has that changed?Industry knowledgeHardtechnicalSell-side research

   Say this

   Historically it was bundled into trading commissions. MiFID II in Europe forced research to be priced and paid for separately, which shrank budgets, cut analyst headcount and concentrated payments on fewer providers.

   Then walk it

   1. The old model: asset managers paid commissions on trades and the broker provided research, corporate access and execution as a bundle. Research looked free and was not.
   2. MiFID II required unbundling in Europe from 2018, so asset managers had to pay for research explicitly, either from their own profit and loss or from a client-funded research payment account.
   3. The consequence: most large managers chose to pay from their own P&L, which made research a direct cost, so budgets fell sharply. Coverage of small and mid caps thinned because it was not worth paying for.
   4. The industry consolidated. Payments concentrated on a handful of top-ranked analysts per sector, and many junior roles disappeared.
   5. Other revenue routes remain important: corporate access, which is arranging meetings between companies and investors, bespoke work, and the connection to the equity capital markets franchise, since a bank with a strong analyst wins more IPO mandates.
   6. Rules have since been loosened in places, including moves to permit rebundling in the UK and EU, so the direction is not settled. Knowing that there has been a partial reversal is what separates a current answer from a textbook one.

   Where candidates lose it

   Not knowing about unbundling at all. If you are interviewing for a sell-side research seat, the economics of the product you would be producing is fair game, and not knowing it suggests you have not thought about the industry's direction.

   Expect next

   • What has that done to coverage of small caps?
   • What is corporate access?
   • Is research a profit centre?
3. 059What is corporate access and why does it matter?Industry knowledgeIntermediatetechnicalSell-side research

   Say this

   It is the broker arranging meetings between company management and investors: roadshows, conferences, site visits and one-on-ones. It matters because for many clients it is the most valued part of the research product.

   Then walk it

   1. The analyst's relationship with the company is what makes it possible, which is one reason sell-side analysts are careful about the tone of negative research.
   2. For the investor it is direct access to management without having to build the relationship themselves, which is genuinely scarce for smaller funds.
   3. For the company it is efficient access to a curated investor base, which is why they cooperate.
   4. For the bank it drives client votes, which determine research payments, and it supports the corporate broking and capital markets relationship.
   5. The tension worth naming: it creates a conflict. An analyst who downgrades a company may lose access to its management, which reduces the value of their product. That structural conflict is why sell-side ratings skew positive.
   6. Regulation touches it too. Under unbundling, corporate access has to be paid for separately rather than bundled with commissions, which changed how it is arranged and charged.

   Where candidates lose it

   Describing the logistics without naming the conflict of interest. The interesting content is why sell-side ratings distributions skew toward buy, and access is a large part of that explanation.

   Expect next

   • Why do sell-side ratings skew positive?
   • How would you handle downgrading a company you need access to?
   • How does that affect how you read a sell-side note?
4. 060Why do sell-side ratings skew toward buy, and how should an investor read that?Industry knowledgeHardtechnicalSell-side researchAsset management

   Say this

   Structural incentives. Maintaining management access, supporting the bank's corporate relationships, and the fact that most clients are long-only and cannot act on a sell. So the information is in the changes, not the levels.

   Then walk it

   1. Access: a sell rating can cost the analyst management meetings, which degrades the product they sell to clients.
   2. Banking relationship: although research and banking are formally separated, a hostile rating complicates the wider corporate relationship, and analysts are aware of that.
   3. Client base: most institutional clients are long-only and can only buy or not buy. A sell recommendation is actionable for only a minority, so it is worth less commercially.
   4. The result is a distribution heavily weighted to buy and hold, where a hold often functions as a sell and a sell is a strong statement.
   5. So the way to read it: ignore the absolute rating and watch the changes. A downgrade from buy to hold from a respected analyst carries far more information than the rating itself.
   6. And read the estimate revisions rather than the words. The numbers move before the ratings do, and estimate revision momentum has historically been a more reliable signal than the published recommendation.

   Where candidates lose it

   Treating the skew as a scandal rather than an incentive structure. The sophisticated answer explains the mechanism and then converts it into a practical rule: trade the revisions, not the ratings.

   Expect next

   • So what signal do you actually use?
   • How does that change how you write a note?
   • What is estimate revision momentum?
5. 069What is the difference between a mutual fund and an ETF?Industry knowledgeCoretechnicalPIMCOCompliance · Los Angeles · 2024The Vanguard GroupGeneralist · Malvern · 2026

   Say this

   Both are pooled vehicles. A mutual fund transacts once a day at NAV directly with the fund; an ETF trades on an exchange all day at a market price, with authorised participants creating and redeeming units in kind.

   Then walk it

   1. Trading: mutual fund orders all execute at the day's closing NAV. ETFs trade continuously, so you can buy intraday, use limit orders, and in some markets short them or trade options on them.
   2. The creation and redemption mechanism is the structural difference. Authorised participants exchange a basket of securities for ETF units, which keeps the market price close to NAV through arbitrage.
   3. Tax, in the US specifically: in-kind redemption lets an ETF hand out low-basis securities without realising gains, so ETFs generally distribute far fewer capital gains than mutual funds. This is a major driver of their growth.
   4. Costs: ETFs typically have lower expense ratios but you pay a bid-ask spread and possibly a brokerage commission, so for small regular investments a mutual fund can work out cheaper.
   5. Access and minimums: mutual funds often have minimum investments and support automatic contribution plans; ETFs need a brokerage account and trade in whole units unless fractional trading is offered.
   6. In India the same distinction holds, with the added practical point that ETF liquidity varies a lot outside the largest index products, so tracking difference and spreads matter more than the headline expense ratio.

   Where candidates lose it

   Saying only 'ETFs trade on an exchange'. The substantive differences are the creation-redemption mechanism and the tax consequence that follows from it. Both should be in the answer.

   Expect next

   • Why are ETFs more tax efficient?
   • When would you recommend a mutual fund instead?
   • What causes an ETF to trade away from NAV?

   Reported by candidates at PIMCO (Compliance, Los Angeles, 2024); The Vanguard Group (Generalist, Malvern, 2026). 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.