Financial Modeling - Need to learn ASAP

Originally Posted by alliswell

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Funny - your name should have tipped me off that you were at Stern. Say '05 and it'll be even funnier.

Funny... my screen name is also from Stern (JSC4**).

If you're looking for corp. fin/ M&A modeling, check this book out:

http://www.amazon.com/Investment-Ban...0829290&sr=1-1

Most other financial modeling books spend much more time/pages on things like CAPM, derivatives, interest rate models, and other stuff that is less relevant to corp. fin/M&A, especially in job interviews.

If you happen to know some people in banking, ask them for their analyst training materials. Those are usually pretty good too.

Another good one is AMT Training (http://www.amttraining.com/). They run a lot of the London-based analyst trainings for BB and boutique banks. They have an online store, in which they sell various training materials. Their Midnight Manuals are pretty good (http://www.amttraining.com/financial...-manuals.html). Besides accounting and valuation, they also teach you a lot of modeling skills, e.g. how good models are structured, frequently used shortcuts.

rosenbaum pearl book is good. I lent a friend of mine my copy and she used it as her interview guide and landed her first choice, starting from absolutely no knowledge beyond general basics.

heard good things about BIWS as well.

I wish I had time to look at Damodaran's stuff. Heard it's really good.

I signed up for BIWS yesterday. We'll see how it goes.

Originally Posted by gomestar

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I signed up for BIWS yesterday. We'll see how it goes.

Good luck! Seems like the purchase price is pretty good when compared to similiar programs.

Indeed the price is good. There's a fair share of stuff I know already, but I've learned it all in bits and pieces so I like the way it starts from zero and moves on from there. And I like the lesson structure, it's much easier for my schedule to look at one 30 min. lesson or 2-3 10-15 minute lessons than to dissect a text book. And along with this, I like that it is a video w/ an excel document and it gives you the before and after excel files rather than having me take the time to create them myself before reading each part of a book. And, of course, the IBD focus.

you don't learn from books...you don't learn from websites...you don't even learn from analyst training programs...you learn when someone is yelling at you at 3am. so for, say $1K I'm willing to email you mp3's of me yelling. it will help.

Originally Posted by haganah

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you don't learn from books...you don't learn from websites...you don't even learn from analyst training programs...you learn when someone is yelling at you at 3am. so for, say $1K I'm willing to email you mp3's of me yelling. it will help.

Originally Posted by JSC437

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Hello. I have been going on a lot of interviews lately (mostly Corporate Finance jobs) and have been asked about my financial modeling skills. In truth, I have a very basic level of understanding on financial modeling and need to improve my skills/knowledge asap. Any suggestions? Books, online courses, etc..?

I should have taken the financial modeling course in grad school.

I'm guessing you are but if not, I would get very fluent with Excel and Access.

Depending on where you are working you can be modeling in some very odd manner. Some hedge funds do some analysis that will blow any regular financial modelers mind, sometimes its just an advanced way of thinking, other times its just absurd.

If you are interviewing for Corporate Finance you should also be well aware of NPV financial modeling. Being able to create the financial model and then project an NPV etc..

Best way to learn is experience, so I wouldn't worry tooo much about not knowing EVERYTHING, most people are looking for competent workers who can get along with the employees and will be a great fit. If you get the interview with someone working who might end up being your boss, then chances are you are VERY close to getting the job, and he is basically just making sure you are not an ass or someone he just personally cannot stand.

For Corp Fin / IB, you will not need to open Access once

Originally Posted by gdl203

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For Corp Fin / IB, you will not need to open Access once

I've used other peoples access databases to pull item pricing, quantity, availability etc..into excel models. It really just depends what you are working on and who you are working with.

Saturdays, I don't know what you do but for the OP's career aspirations in IB/corp fin, he does not need to even know that Access exists. He should not be spending a minute trying to learn that software when he has a lot to learn on Excel and particularly on the mechanics of modeling financial statements and transactions. I'm trying to be helpful to the OP here and not waste his time. None of his interviewers will expect him to know MS Access

Originally Posted by gdl203

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Saturdays, I don't know what you do but for the OP's career aspirations in IB/corp fin, he does not need to even know that Access exists. He should not be spending a minute trying to learn that software when he has a lot to learn on Excel and particularly on the mechanics of modeling financial statements and transactions. I'm trying to be helpful to the OP here and not waste his time. None of his interviewers will expect him to know MS Access
Sorry but I have not had any IB interviews, I do know that in my recent Corp Finance interviews I have been asked whether or not I can use Access and particularly use it to link data across to Excel. Apparently a few companies find that important. For your information, as well, not all Corporate Finance positions work with Financial Statements and Transactions. Some positions require you to project NPV for a certain project the company is working on, whether its expanding a Stadium or launching an ad campaign. If he is going to be doing modeling to determine the price of issuing securities, or forecasting price of the stock for a company, well yeah Access has nothing to do with that on his part. If you can learn advanced Excel, I am sure just the basics of Access will be easy to pick up. gdl203 - You are correct though in that he should prioritize Excel over Access in basically every instance, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't know the basics. Also I understand his position interviewing for is primarily M&A, but that doesn't mean he won't get an interview with something more related to what I am talking about since it technically falls within Corporate Finance.

Originally Posted by gdl203

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Saturdays, I don't know what you do but for the OP's career aspirations in IB/corp fin, he does not need to even know that Access exists. He should not be spending a minute trying to learn that software when he has a lot to learn on Excel and particularly on the mechanics of modeling financial statements and transactions. I'm trying to be helpful to the OP here and not waste his time. None of his interviewers will expect him to know MS Access

+ 1,000,000^10

Originally Posted by Staggerlee

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Look for ebook versions of "Financial Modeling in Practice" and "Financial Modeling using Excel and VBA".

edit: you went to NYU, professor Damodoran's website has great spreadsheets: http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/

Wow, this site is unbelievable! There are entire courses on here, with webcasts, supporting materials, exams. A video of the valuation class from 2 days ago is already posted. Just amazing. Thanks for linking to this.