Indices
- Produce research on and design index funds, ETFs, and related products
- Sample employers: JP Morgan (Global Index Research Group), S&P (Dow Jones Indices)
Economic forecasting
- Involved in forecasting macroeconomic variables and running economic scenario analysis for a financial institution (e.g. suppose X happened, what would tomorrow’s economy look like?)
- Employers: major banks (JP Morgan, Citi, etc.)
Credit rating
- Analyze bonds to determine probability of default or expected loss from default
- Involves financial modelling, proprietary statistical models, accounting, interpretation of financial data and documents
- Types of bonds rated: corporate, public finance, financial institutions, structured finance, project finance, insurance, sovereigns, funds & asset management
- Major employers are the big 3 credit rating agencies: S&P (Global Ratings), Moody’s (Investor Services), Fitch Ratings
Research
Produce and publish research in public policy, foreign exchange, interest rates, economics, etc.
Produce and publish research in sovereign bonds, high yield bonds, municipal bonds, corporate bonds, etc.
Fixed Income Strategy
- Monitor financial markets to get a sense of market themes, events driving market activity
- Develop research and market knowledge used to inform investment decisions and overall strategy toward fixed income products
- Communicate market perspectives to teams internally within the firm as well as external clients
- Employers: major banks
Stress-testing
- Run models to simulate whether financial institutions can withstand economic/financial stresses
- Design and develop processes surrounding firm stress testing; prepare stress testing results for external submission
- Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) and Dodd-Frank Act Stress Testing (DFAST) are stress tests conducted by the Federal Reserve to see whether banks have sufficient capital to survive economic/financial downturns
- Employers: major banks
Other job areas include risk management, commercial banking, insurance, corporate finance, private wealth management, and much, much more!