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. 088How do you avoid confirmation bias in your research?Research processHardsuperdayHedge fundsAsset management

   Say this

   Build the disconfirming case deliberately rather than waiting to encounter it. Write the bear case before you buy, define in advance what would falsify the thesis, and seek out the best argument against you.

   Then walk it

   1. Pre-commit the falsifier. When you initiate, write down the specific observable outcome that would prove you wrong, with a date. Then you cannot rationalise it later.
   2. Write the opposing case yourself, properly, not a straw man. If you cannot write a persuasive bear case, you do not understand the stock well enough to own it.
   3. Actively read the other side: the short reports, the bearish sell-side note, the competitor's investor day. Seek out the smartest person who disagrees.
   4. Structure the review so it starts from the evidence rather than from your note. Re-underwriting the position from scratch once a year, ignoring what you previously wrote, is the most effective single habit.
   5. Use a team process: have someone else argue the other side, or present the bear case yourself to the portfolio manager. Making the disconfirming work someone's explicit job is how good funds handle it.
   6. And watch for the behavioural tell: noticing that you are discounting bad news because it is inconvenient. Catching that in yourself is most of the battle.

   Where candidates lose it

   Giving a generic 'I try to stay objective'. Everyone believes that; that is what makes the bias work. The answer needs specific mechanisms, pre-commitment and structured disconfirmation, not intentions.

   Expect next

   • What would falsify your current best idea?
   • How do you handle it when a position moves against you?
   • Who do you go to for the other side?

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.