Reddit mentions of Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, and Mergers and Acquisitions

Thank you, good luck!

Rosenbaum and Pearl IB

Without knowing exactly what you want to learn about within M&A -- tough to say, but Rosenbaum & Pearl's Investment Banking is generally regarded as the classic.

Have you tried emailing them?
https://tbc.uchicago.edu/contact-us

A lot of those questions will probably be answered first week during info sessions, but my understanding:

1. Not too sure how MC and TBC differ (I’m in neither)—I think Blue Chips does due diligence on individual stocks within a sector and then invests an alumni gift diversified among whichever stock pitches pass a quarterly review. MC I think focuses more on educating members on quantitative finance and trading strategies. I think both would prepare you well for a career in finance (I-Banking, Quant Trading, or anything else)
   
2. MC states on their website that no prior finance experience is required so I can’t imagine it’s too hard (and personally I like the accessibility aspect), but you probably need to be familiar with like what an option is for example. TBC is one of the more selective clubs on campus, and yeah like a poster said it seems exclusive or whatever, but that’s also partially the fault of so many students wanting to do finance/consulting after undergrad. Don’t get caught up in prestige tho—just because a club is more selective doesn’t mean it is better (it might just be smaller) and there are many other clubs & classes besides TBC and MC that also teach finance on campus.
   
3. If you read Rosenbaum and Pearl you’ll be fine for TBC (note that you don’t need to buy the textbook, it’s available free as a PDF all over the internet just google it)—understand the principles and technicals of value investing. Not sure if this would be overkill for MC, but it wouldn’t hurt ofc.
   
   Since you asked for worthwhile info: at info sessions ask current RSO members what they want to do after graduation. The more members who can definitively answer you, the more likely it is that the club has helped them define their goals and to some extent put them on the right track to achieving it. Just my two cents I suppose.

As somebody who recently did exactly what you are aspiring to do, there are a few resources I would recommend.

• Macabacus - learn everything on this site. Download the models, use them, learn how they work.
  
• Breaking Into Wallstreet - same with the above.
  
  Learn everything you can about the three financial statements, how they flow into each other, and how to forecast each major line item. Any solid investment banking book will help with a lot of this, I recommend this one.
  
  VBA is nice, but not necessary. I'd much more recommend knowing how to answer:"If I have 100 million in EBITDA and I subtract 10 million from Depreciation and Amortization, how does that impact Net Income, what changes in your balance sheet, and how does that flow through to the cash flow statement?"
  
  But even more importantly in banking is your personality and attitude. You're being interviewed mostly to see if your coworkers can tolerate you for 60+ hours a week, as they're more likely to spend more time with you at work than they are at home with their families.

No it's not. There are tons and tons and tons of resources / information available online for what i-banking is, how it works, how to break in, interview guides, compensation information, which banks are the "best", bulge bracket vs. boutique, when recruiting cycles take place, etc.

I mean go to the forums at wallstreetoasis.com if you're curious, or mergersandinquisitions.com, browse investopedia.

There are books available detailing exactly what investment bankers do and how they do it-- like this book written by bankers: http://www.amazon.com/Investment-Banking-Valuation-Leveraged-Acquisitions/dp/1118656210.

I-banking is incredibly transparent. Politicians / the media make it out to be some Illuminati / conspiracy industry.

Well shucks, glad it was helpful to someone! Before I moved to the corporate side, I was an equity research analyst. So I was the guy writing these reports. I covered another sector though.


Resources:

• Aswath has a plethora of good (and free) excel models and finance material, which he both teaches from and posts online for free at his Stern page here: http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/spreadsh.htm
  
• Detailed modeling courses, including topics applicable to PE, are usually taught by Wall Street Prep or Training The Street. Some of the instructors for those companies also adjunct teach at NY-area business schools, so there's a chance you could always drop in on one of those. Most of the materials from each have leaked various places online.
  
• All the wall st banks either hire WSP or TTS to teach their incoming classes, or have their own structured programs and fly in chosen professors. But they're all teaching toward the same topics covered by the companies above.
  
• There's various popular books like "Valuation" or "Investment Banking" that are crazy detailed and personally, incredibly boring.
  
• I think most people would be better served by talking with folks in the VC or PE space, and dipping their toes into specific areas of interest much the way Aswath, his blog, or the CFA Institute's refresher material does.
  
  If you're smart, and esp if experienced like yourself, most any textbook will be painfully boring. And I mean really, really, painful and uninteresting save for small sections of sparse chapters.
  
  I think Aswath has the most free models, good templates and instructional models can be found from WSP and TTS if you look hard (torrents, wallstreetoasis, etc). There's also some from google "dorking", e.g. narrow a google search by adding these terms after your search string: filetype:xls for excel files only, or site:.edu for results only from schools i.e. those ending in .EDU. You can combine these too, and there's other more specific filters via Advanced Search Options. For example, this search "private equity" model filetype:xls has this LBO model on the 1st page of results: http://mdatraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LBO-model.xls
  
  Good luck, and hello to a fellow wall street'er on Peloton!

[Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, and Mergers & Acquisitions] (http://www.amazon.com/Investment-Banking-Valuation-Leveraged-Acquisitions/dp/1118656210/)

Honestly, just read this a couple of times - https://www.amazon.com/Investment-Banking-Valuation-Leveraged-Acquisitions/dp/1118656210

[This] (https://www.amazon.com/Investment-Banking-Valuation-Leveraged-Acquisitions/dp/1118656210) Rosenbaum and Pearl text is widely considered the handbook of IB and does an excellent job of covering the day to day tasks of an analyst / associate.

Yet it's missing Rosenbaum's Investment Banking

https://www.amazon.com/Investment-Banking-Valuation-Leveraged-Acquisitions/dp/1118656210/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1NVXJXOUNYT70&keywords=investment+banking+rosenbaum+pearl&qid=1551242714&s=gateway&sprefix=investment+banking%2Caps%2C159&sr=8-2

I thought this was a pretty good article that I enjoyed. Here are my thoughts. I was a huge fan of the E-Myth and use a lot of the core concepts of the book on a regular basis. The only issue I have is that thinking like a banker is a much higher level concept than most entrepreneurs are ready for. M&A is extremely hot right now but growth through acquisition is an complicated process that can blow up in your face and would be a bad move for an overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs. Even the companies that are the size where it makes sense, most are failures according to a study by the HBR. Also, because of your interest in IB concepts I would put this book on the top of your reading list. https://www.amazon.com/Investment-Banking-Valuation-Leveraged-Acquisitions/dp/1118656210 Anyways just my thoughts.

I'm saying

>knowledge of how Goldman works to begin with would be necessary for evaluating its integrity.

The set of people with the relevant knowledge is a little broader than I first let on, and includes:

• academics who study the finance industry
  
  
• some but probably not most of the people who work or used to work in the finance industry
  
  
• Lawyers who work on either side of legal cases involving firms like Goldman
  
  
• Probably most judges who regularly hear cases involving big banks
  
  
• Probably most of the people who work for the FDIC and some other regulatory bodies
  
  
• Really, anyone with significant knowledge and expertise of both how investment banks work and economics or finance in general. Heck, even this book plus a masters degree in a relevant field (economics, finance, maybe accounting) probably counts.
  
  If your friends who don't like Goldman are actually experts, I apologize. But most of the people I meet, especially online, who have a strong opinion of them and/or "consider them to be most dishonest institution" make it clear when asked to elaborate that they have no idea what they're talking about. And I'll double down on saying that people who have no idea what they're talking about with respect to what Goldman and other investment banks do also necessarily have no idea what they're talking about with respect to whether that's good or not.
  

Affordable / Free Resources:

ASimpleModel.com (Novice / Intermediate)

Macabacus.com (Intermediate / Advanced)

Prof. Aswath Damodaran

Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, and Mergers & Acquisitions In addition to covering the various aspects of valuation and modeling, the text also covers the process of moving through a transaction and describes the documents required. If you want to work in IB, this is a great resource.

https://www.amazon.com/Investment-Banking-Valuation-Leveraged-Acquisitions/dp/1118656210

WSO and M&I are better bets

Is this a good book for learning investing? It was recommended by the investment club I am in at uni.

[Only textbook I have ever enjoyed reading] (http://www.amazon.com/Investment-Banking-Valuation-Leveraged-Acquisitions/dp/1118656210/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1413934924&sr=8-4&keywords=valuation)

Current multiples are normally behind a pay wall. Commonly followed sector specific multiples can be found in this Book

For investment banking, you would only really have a shot at a biotech bank looking for a scientific-minded analyst. That said, they probably "know what they're getting" by hiring you, and are planning on training you. If it is something you would really consider, I would highly recommending reading Investment Banking by Rosenbaum and Pearl to gain a basic understanding of financial statements, and the 5 basic valuation methodologies. Being able to speak about these....even at a high level...will go far in an interview (these are the basics of entry level undergrad IB recruiting interviews).

Depending on the bank, some may look for you to fill an associate type of a role, but I wouldn't expect that without banking experience or an MBA, but small shops would use you as a consultant or even an analyst in the right environment. Do some searching for life science and healthcare investment banks and you can see in most "team" sections the background on the individuals at the firm. Small boutique types of shops will focus on getting the most efficiency out of analysts as possible, and your experience can be a large advantage over just a finance background in the right setting

I have looked into that one before, but the reviews on amazon seem pretty bad:

https://www.amazon.com/Investment-Banking-Valuation-Leveraged-Acquisitions/dp/1118656210