Whenever we observe data, we are usually observing one or a few samples from a much larger population. For example, if we are looking at daily stock market returns for AAPL for last year, we are looking at only a small portion of the overall daily returns. More often than

Porter's five forces is the most famous concept in strategy, and is a part of every business undergrad/MBA curriculum. The concept is a succinct yet brilliant way of describing the competitive forces in an industry. For banking, it is an immensely useful framework for industry analysis, a key part of

In our Capital Asset Pricing Model post, we discussed risk and return for stocks. We also discussed the use of the relationship to value stocks, by interpolating what the return for a stock should be given a certain level of risk. We will build on these concepts and discuss how

In our other accounting estimates articles, we talked about the discretion that management has in the income statement and the balance sheet. In this article, we will dive deeper into the incentives that management may have to manage these estimates. What is Earnings Management? Despite the discretionary nature of some of the

M&A Transaction Case Studies are commonly seen in case competitions, and sometimes in actual investment banking work. They are a quick analysis of an M&A transaction, summarized in a few PowerPoint slides. They can be a great way to prepare for interviews, while learning about the details of a transaction. Slide

It has become apparent to us that our website assumes a level of knowledge which may make it difficult for people newly interested in investment banking to jump into our interview section. So before someone goes from 0 to 60 and is asked about more advanced valuation concepts, we are going

In our previous articles, we discussed the impact that accounting estimates have on the income statement. However, it is not just the income statement that is subject to estimates, the balance sheet is as well. Balance sheet items will affect efficiency ratios (asset turnover), solvency ratios (debt to equity), and

In the last article, we discussed revenue recognition, and its implication on financial statement analysis. We will follow up that discussion by going over the other half of the income statement: expenses. We will go over what the accounting standards are and what discretion management has, and how they could

We discussed financial statements and the importance of financial statement analysis in our previous articles.  We will follow those discussions with a more detailed look at each statement. Public financial statements are governed by accounting standards, usually under IFRS or US GAAP, and audited by an external firm for fairness.

In the last article, we talked about how firms make decisions based on their marginal costs and marginal revenue. In this article, we will further that discussion by breaking down the different market structures that firms operate in, and how that affects decision making. These market structures, perfect competition, monopoly,