Really excited for this episode as we explore a completely new investment vehicle, investing in royalties from music artists! I bring on Jeff Schneider, the CFO from Royalty Exchange , to share his path to becoming a CFO and insights into how the investment structure at Royalty Exchange works. Some of the artists that have used Royalty Exchange as a platform have included the artist who created the theme song for Dora the Explorer, music for Dumb and Dumber, and a Barry White Song! *...

Happy New Year! Welcome back to The Vampire Squid, I’m incredibly excited for this year and for what is to come for TVS. Today’s episode will be on Market Indices and Exchanges like the S&P 500, DJIA, NYSE, and NASDAQ. I think this is an incredibly important episode because of the volatility that we have been seeing in the stock market, as well as everything that is to come that will affect how the markets perform. * Difference between Market Indices and Market Exchanges * Market...

Greetings from the Galapagos Islands!! Before we start, if you are a developer (iOS), shoot me an email!! I hope everyone is getting some time off for the holidays! This episode is short and sweet and a quick review of how far The Vampire Squid has come in 2016, and what I hope to accomplish in 2017. Thank you all for your help along the way, I couldn’t have done it without you all. Talk to you guys in the new year 🙂 As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or...

Welcome to Part II of the interview with Karen Ho, our expert on Wall Street Anthropology! This episode continues with quality insights from Karen as we continue to discuss past recessions, training, and socioeconomic inequality. Email Address: [email protected] * Is Wall Street culture all bad? * What were the similarities and differences between the 2001 Dot Com Crash vs. the Mortgage Housing Crisis of 2008? * Collateralized Mortgage Obligations * How the market was driven by high...

I’m so excited to introduce this episode, one of the most revealing and informative ones that I have done to date! Please welcome a special guest, Karen Ho, an American Anthropologist, who studies wall street culture. Karen is currently teaching at the University of Minnesota, and received her PhD at Princeton and undergraduate and masters at Stanford all in anthropology. This episode is jam packed in that we talk about the three part wall street cocktail, short-termism, greed, etc. etc....

Welcome back everyone and to Part II of the hedge fund episode with Jesse Felder! I recently did some very exciting interviews as well that I can’t wait to share with everyone shortly 🙂 Hope you enjoy and please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or comments Twitter: @jessefelder * How many stocks do you hold in a portfolio? * What are the traits that make a good hedge fund investor? * What can junior people do to stand out and impress hedge fund investors in...

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Today, we have brought on Jesse Felder, who is the author of The Felder Report, that educates and informs individual investors about the issues most important to success in the financial markets. Jesse used to work at Bear Stearns and then broke off to help start his own hedge fund. I hope you enjoy this episode! * Jesse Felder’s background at Bear Stearns * How studying English and literature instead of finance can be valuable * Shakespeare *...

This week’s episode will be on early stage employee stock options, an episode very critical for anyone interested in joining an early stage company that offers them stock options. We talk about the valuation, tax liability, and questions to ask about the company to make sure you are getting the best compensation package possible. I hope you enjoy! * How do employee stock options work? * Compensation and share in the company * Vesting Schedule * Exercise dates * Taxes * Example...

Today’s episode is on one of my favorite TV shows, Shark Tank which is about entrepreneurs pitching the “Sharks” which include the likes of Mark Cuban, Daymond John, and Chris Sacca. We will go over the most common types of investments that are made on Shark Tank, the pros and cons of different investment structures, and one of my favorite episodes! * Overview of Shark Tank * The Sharks * Common industries represented * Different Investment Structures * Cash for Equity * Debt...

Today’s episode is on Activist Investing, something that has become quite prolific over the last decade with the induction of the internet, media, and smartphones. Activist investing is contrary to passive investing, which we discussed at length previous episodes. I hope you find this episode both informational and entertaining! * Difference between Passive vs. Active Investors * Activist Landscape * Notable Activist Investors * Proliferation of Activist Investing * Technology *...

Happy early Halloween! Part II of the Trading Options episode with Kirk Du Plessis. This episode covers a lot of great information on questions that I had for trading options and Kirk’s entrepreneurial spirit for starting his own company, Optionalpha.com, after working on wall street. Please enjoy! * What happens if you forget about your options, and they expire in the money? * Do you have to have enough money in your account to buy all the options? * What happens during a “margin...

Today’s episode we dive deeper into trading options with Kirk Du Plessis, who is the founder of Optionalpha.com, an educational option trading site. This episode and Part II are packed with great nuggets of information on how to trade options, calculating success of trades, and even Kirk’s entrepreneurial spirit in quitting banking and starting his own platform and company trading options. I hope that you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed interviewing Kirk. Kirk also runs a successful...

Hey everyone! Just got back from California so apologies for the late post. Today, we are going to be talking about a very important subject, managing stress and maintaining a positive attitude. I know that in my career as well as in school, I have had to deal with stressful situations, and felt that this is an important topic to talk about. Also, before we start, if you’re interested in helping out with TVS, please shoot me an email at [email protected]. I haven’t thought of the...

In Part II of the Venture Capital Overview with Charlie O’Donnell, we continue our conversation about VC, entrepreneurship, and more! Please see note details below, and hope that you enjoy 🙂 Email: [email protected] * How did your experience running a startup help you with your VC experience? * How a 7-year time frame correlates to understanding a cycle and getting good at VC investing. * Anchor investors and the challenges of raising a first round fund, and then a second round...

For the 20th episode of The Vampire Squid, we had to bring on a very special guest. Please welcome Charlie O’Donnell! Charlie is the founder of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the first analyst at Union Square Ventures, writer of one of the most popular VC blogs This is Going to be Big, and I could go on and on. This was one of the most fun and informative interviews that I have conducted and Charlie is extremely funny, insightful, in-depth, and down to earth as he shares his experience and...

Disclaimer: “Today’s episode does not condone or promote the trading of any single stock equities. The content in today’s episode are for educational purposes only and I am speaking on behalf of myself without further representation.” Andre Agassi “Open” – http://cpor.org/ri/Agassi-Open-An-Autobiography.pdf Investment Checklist – http://mebfaber.com/2011/01/20/hedge-fund-analyst-checklist/ * Two pronged thought process for investing in Stock * Is this a fundamentally good company? *...

Welcome back to another episode of The Vampire Squid! Today, we’re going to be talking about trading options. For compliance reasons, please note that “Today’s episode does not condone or promote the trading of any single stock equities. The content in today’s episode are for educational purposes only and I am speaking on behalf of myself without further representation.” Also, shout to Val and Geoff who contributed $100 and $20 per month respectively, you guys rock :)! * What are...

Welcome to episode 17 of The Vampire Squid! Today, we will be talking about Banking vs. Consulting since I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking me about the differences between the two as well as my decision to pursue banking over consulting. Also, if you guys are interested in helping support The Vampire Squid, please check out my Patreon page here! https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid * Recruiting * Recruiting for both banking and consulting * How to make a decision between the...

Hope everyone had a great labor day weekend! Today we are going to be talking about Leveraged Buy Outs, another form of valuation and modeling. As promised, please see a link to the actual model of an LBO, and a more detailed explanation in case you are interested. LBO Model LBO Detailed Overview * LBO Drivers * Purchase Price * Debt Quantum * Interest Rate * Synergies * Exit Price * Dividend Recap  * Walk through of an LBO * Types of companies that are good LBO...

New York vs. San Francisco! Two of my favorite cities that I have ever lived in. In this episode, we will dive deep into the major differences between New York and San Francisco from a career perspective and a lifestyle perspective. Overall, I would say please don’t be nervous to move to a new city if you have a great opportunity to do so. It will be difficult at first but it will force you to step outside of your comfort zone but you will quickly adapt and make new friends and get to enjoy a...

Today’s episode will cover another one of the most common valuation techniques, Comparable Companies Analysis, which is an extrinsic form of valuation that people use for companies. Hope that you enjoy the episode and takeaway understanding how this method is used! * Extrinsic Valuation * Ratios * Common Comps Multiples * EV / Revenue * EV / EBITDA * Price / Earnings * Drivers and lever that go into Comps * If two companies are identical in terms of size, industry,...

Welcome to the first valuation episode! Today we will talk about Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis, one of the most common types of valuation that people in finance use. As promised, please see attached links to an actual DCF model, in addition to more of the granularity of the formula in case you are interested. DCF Model – http://macabacus.com/valuation/dcf/overview Detailed DCF explanation – http://www.investopedia.com/university/dcf/ * Intrinsic Valuation of a company * What is...

Welcome back! As many of you know starting today, we will be releasing one episode per week on Sundays. First day of work tomorrow! https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaun-mehra-842b9a47 Today we have a very special guest, Shaun Mehra. Shaun worked as a private equity analyst at Silver Lake Partners, a large cap private equity fund focused on technology investments. We go over Shaun’s day to day, investment thesis, and advice to break into the industry. Very fun episode, hope you enjoy! *...

Welcome back for the last episode of the three part series on investment banking recruiting, technicals! Before we begin, check out this recent article that was written about us in The Globe and Mail. * Best Resources for preparing for Technicals * Friends that have worked in investment banking * Wall Street Oasis Prep Guide * Rosenbaum and Pearl * Sections for Investment Banking Technicals * Financial Statements * How they tie to one another * Specific line items on the...

Welcome to Part II of the Investment Banking Recruiting series. Today, we are talking about behavorial questions which are arguably more important than technicals. We also touch briefly on networking as I did not cover this subject as much in the first IB Recruiting Episode. * Make sure to have a theme or message you want to convey across in the interview * Prepare every line item on your resume so you can speak extensively to it * Questions, answers, and why they are asking them *...