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. 003Analyse whether Boeing is a good stock to invest in. Give me a two-line thesis on the spot.Stock pitchHardsuperdaySCSchrodersEquity Research · New York · 2025

   Say this

   Two lines means one claim and one reason. Something like: Boeing is a duopoly with a decade-long order backlog, so the question is not demand but whether it can execute delivery and repair its balance sheet; I would own it only if you believe free cash flow inflects within two years.

   Then walk it

   1. Line one is the structural fact that makes it investable: a global duopoly with Airbus, enormous switching costs for airlines, and a multi-year backlog that effectively pre-sells the output.
   2. Line two is the controversy, which is where the money is made or lost: production quality, regulatory constraint on output rates, and a balance sheet carrying heavy debt from the crisis years.
   3. So the thesis reduces to a single variable: deliveries per month. Revenue, cash flow and deleveraging all follow from that one number, which is unusual and worth saying because it makes the stock tractable.
   4. Then take a side. If you believe the rate ramps, free cash flow inflects sharply and the equity re-rates off depressed earnings. If you do not, the debt is a problem and you stay away.
   5. Then name the falsifier: monthly delivery data and the regulator's production cap are published, so the thesis is testable in near real time. That is what makes it a good pitch rather than an opinion.

   Where candidates lose it

   Reciting everything you know about Boeing. Two lines means two lines. The skill being tested is compression: finding the one variable the investment turns on and committing to a view on it.

   Expect next

   • What would change your mind?
   • How would you track the thesis?
   • Would you rather own Boeing or Airbus?

   Reported by candidates at Schroders (Equity Research, New York, 2025). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 004Pitch me a stock.Stock pitchIntermediateevery roundMan GroupEquity Hedge · London · 2016MSMorgan StanleySales and Trading · Tokyo · 2025Balyasny Asset ManagementGeneralist · New York · 2020

   Say this

   Recommendation and target first, business in two sentences, then the variant view, the catalyst, the risk, and what would make you wrong. Ninety seconds, and the variant view is the only part that counts.

   Then walk it

   1. Open with the trade: 'Long X at 40, target 55, about 35 percent upside over 12 to 18 months.' Never build up to the recommendation.
   2. Two sentences on what the business actually does, so the interviewer knows you are not pitching a ticker.
   3. The variant view: what do you believe that consensus does not, and why are you right? 'The street models 8 percent growth; I think it is 14 because the new contract has not been added to numbers yet.' Quantify the gap.
   4. The catalyst and timing: what makes the market agree with you, and roughly when. A view with no catalyst is a value trap.
   5. Valuation: what multiple you are paying, what the peers trade at, what the reverse DCF implies.
   6. Risks and the falsifier: the two things that break the thesis, and the specific data point you would watch. Ending on what would make you wrong is what makes an analyst sound honest rather than promotional.

   Where candidates lose it

   Pitching a household mega-cap with a thesis lifted from the financial press. If the reason is in the newspaper, it is in the price. Pick something slightly off the beaten path and know its numbers cold.

   Expect next

   • Are you sure that thesis can be backed up? What if their costs do not fall?
   • What is the bear case?
   • How would you hedge it?

   Reported by candidates at Man Group (Equity Hedge, London, 2016); Morgan Stanley (Sales and Trading, Tokyo, 2025); Balyasny Asset Management (Generalist, New York, 2020). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

3. 005Are you sure your thesis can be backed up? What if their costs do not fall?Stock pitchHardsuperdayApollo Global ManagementInvestments · Remote · 2021FTFranklin TempletonOil and Gas · San Mateo · 2024

   Say this

   Answer the substance, do not defend the position. Say what evidence supports the cost assumption, quantify what happens if you are wrong, and state at what point you would exit.

   Then walk it

   1. First, give the evidence behind the assumption, specifically. 'Management guided to it' is weak. 'The input contract repriced in Q2 and the run-rate is already visible in the last two quarters of gross margin' is strong.
   2. Then quantify the downside. 'If costs stay flat, EPS is 15 percent below my number and the stock is worth 38 rather than 55, so I lose about 5 percent from here.' That shows you have modelled the bear case, not just the bull.
   3. Then the asymmetry: if the downside is 5 percent and the upside is 35, the position still makes sense even at a 50 percent probability. That is the real defence.
   4. Then the monitoring point: which disclosure tells you early that you are wrong, and by when you would expect to see it.
   5. And be willing to concede. 'You are right that this is the weakest part of the thesis, which is why I would size it at half a normal position' is a far better answer than digging in. Interviewers push to see whether you update on evidence.

   Where candidates lose it

   Defending the pitch emotionally. This is a pressure test of intellectual honesty, not of conviction. The winning response quantifies the downside and names the exit; stubbornness reads as someone who will lose the fund money.

   Expect next

   • At what price would you stop out?
   • How would you size the position?
   • What is the single data point you would watch?

   Reported by candidates at Apollo Global Management (Investments, Remote, 2021); Franklin Templeton (Oil and Gas, San Mateo, 2024). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

4. 086Give me a two-line thesis on a company you would short.Stock pitchHardsuperdayBalyasny Asset ManagementGeneralist · New York · 2020

   Say this

   One line on the structural problem, one line on the catalyst that forces the market to see it. Something like: the company's growth is funded by discounting that is destroying its unit economics, and the covenant test at the next refinancing will expose it.

   Then walk it

   1. Line one has to be a mechanism, not a valuation. 'Expensive' is not a thesis. 'Gross margin has fallen 600 basis points over six quarters while revenue growth held up, because they are buying volume' is a mechanism.
   2. Line two is the clock: the specific event that makes the market agree. A refinancing, a covenant test, a contract renewal, a patent expiry, a competitor launch, a change in the disclosure that removes the cover.
   3. Then the numbers that support it, in one breath: the trend in the metric, and the gap between what management guides and what the trend implies.
   4. Then the risk: what would squeeze you. A cheap balance sheet, a possible takeover, heavy existing short interest, or a founder who could take it private.
   5. And the practicalities: borrow cost and days to cover, because a 20 percent borrow makes a slow thesis unprofitable even if you are right.
   6. Prepare a real one before you walk in. Being unable to construct a short is a common failure in buy-side interviews, and it reveals that you have only ever thought about why things go up.

   Where candidates lose it

   Not having one prepared. Long-short interviews ask for both sides, and candidates almost always have three longs and no shorts. Prepare one short properly, including the borrow cost and the squeeze risk.

   Expect next

   • What is the borrow?
   • What would squeeze you?
   • How would you size it?

   Reported by candidates at Balyasny Asset Management (Generalist, New York, 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.