While every day brings on different challenges, as an analyst there are some things you can’t avoid. You need to understand what a company is doing and why; you want to know what’s happening globally; and you try to compare your findings to “the Street.” It’s all done with the goal of making informed decisions quickly and finding the most relevant content to help it happen.
Understanding company strategy
Digging into a company’s strategy is a critical part of the job. To do this, I analyze transcripts from Earnings calls, press releases and company presentations. By studying prepared materials circulated to the media and investors, as well as relatively unrehearsed, off-the-cuff remarks from transcripts, I’m able to get smart quickly on topics that are relevant to my work.
For example, I might discern how a company is positioning a new offering or understanding the latest developments in an organization like management change.The same goes for prospectuses, circulars, and IR releases too. These documents help assess a company’s strategy as well as the competition or market peers abroad.
Analyzing government reports
In addition, part of any analyst’s day is checking individual U.S. SEC filings and other government reports—but going abroad and out of the company’s main geographic area is just as important. The world is more interconnected than ever: knowing what U.S. companies are doing abroad or the latest news on international firms and their competition is invaluable.
Broker research
Finally, it goes without saying that broker research can be beneficial to an analyst’s work. We need to check our assumptions against that of other firms. The data provided in broker reports also allows an analyst to understand key factors connected to an investment opportunity within a short period of time.
Aggregating data for better decision-making
Putting all this research together is the final piece: you want to make sure you’ve covered all your bases and not missed anything important, and you have to do it as quickly as possible.
I’ve found AlphaSense to be incredibly helpful. The content sets I need are there, and the AI-powered search saves me time and ensures I get what I need with Smart Synonyms. On-call product specialists help me with complicated project requests. If you’re an analyst, or anyone who works in a job with a rigorous decision-making process, I suggest you give AlphaSense a shot.
Jan Svenda is an independent equity analyst focused on the U.S. Small/Micro-cap space. He searches for long ideas trading around Net Current Assets Value (NCAV) and for short ideas which showcase a significant potential for aggressive or manipulative accounting.
Read all posts written by Jan Svenda
