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what does a financial analyst do? well this and this and this.

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so after all that analyzing of financial data what does the analyst actually do?

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well she makes recommendations to you know do stuff. generally so that [man frowns at camera]

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investors can make money or not lose money. and to be clear financial analysts

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come in a few different flavors. pick an analyst who works for a stock brokerage

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for example. well they produce reports which the brokerage then gives to

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clients hoping that it will incentivize its clients to trade with the firm and

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give the firm its business, which of course generates commission for the

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stock brokers in theory. the goal here is to make money for the client. but the

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more near-term goal is to you know get the client to pay attention to the firm.

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this is a subtle but very important difference from a financial analyst who [one man stands behind another and shouts]

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works for an investment company ie one who actually invests money for clients

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and is evaluated based on the performance of those investments. a

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financial analyst inside of an investment company like fidelity or

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Franklin or American Funds cares only about how well the investment does. the

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financial analyst does not have to juggle clients or worry about marketing

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to non-professional investors or generating commissions for the firm. all

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they have to worry about is beating the market or their index or whatever

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benchmarks are set out there for them .in addition there are two flavors of [woman hits punching bag]

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financial analysts on Wall Street more or less .by side -those are extensions of

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hedge funds and private equity funds and venture capital funds and mutual funds-

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they're all the people who analyze things from the perspective of a buyer

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only like they buy the stuff they don't have to keep clients happy and get

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Commission business. then you have the sell side which are largely just [graph showing stocks]

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extensions of stockbrokers. stockbrokers hire the analyst to give smart opinions

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on buying selling and holding stocks such that well they can go talk to their

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clients about it and win Commission business from getting them to trade

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through them by recommending Microsoft at forty two dollars and twelve cents

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and stuff like that. there are financial analysts who work for the government as

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well. these guys are usually housed in hell-like divisions of the government

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called the Fed which assesses whether or not the [man in dark glasses behind computer]

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economy is heating up cooling down or see-sawing like a spring day in Chicago.

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well here a financial analyst might be sampling the prices of a half gallon

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carton of GMO milk at 500 grocery stores around the country. they then use that

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data to figure out if the country is feeling inflation deflation or just

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boredom .financial analysts exist inside of corporations as well.

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corporate analysts perform market evaluations to try to help companies [man smiles at camera]

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sell more product for more profit which in turn fuels the company's growth and

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all that other fun stuff. so yes being a financial analyst might not be the

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flashiest job in the world but just think about all that Ben and Jerry's you

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can buy once your commission comes through. [people cheer the ice cream truck]

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