Business Investment Interview Preparation Guide

I don't use a rating guide at all. Remember that these are portfolios of securities of a (presumably) less risky nature so an absolute rating of quality might be a little hard to believe in. I look at the range of price movement over a minimum of three to five years to assess risk based on the current price, and try to avoid buying at extremely high historical levels, when possible.
* The next issue is reasonableness of the yield vs. the amount of leverage used. Avoid excessively high or low leverage in the same way that you avoid excessively high or low yields.
* The relationship to NAV is certainly important to consider, but don't let it become the primary issue.
* The S & P Stock Guide is still the one. Most of the information you need is provided, toward the back of the book.
* A significant issue, and this is something you need to develop, is confidence and experience with these securities both generally and specifically. It takes time and patience.
* Remember, the ability to trade is a secondary benefit of income CEFs.

Yes, absolutely. I focus on the right hand columns of the Stock Guide ( Earnings per Share) to make certain that there are no recent negative numbers (a recent operating deficit). It's not uncommon for companies to pay a dividend for a while after they begin leaking oil. A dividend cut or omission won't be far behind. We want both, profits and dividends.

Always keep in mind that a bad quarter, in a generally profitable long term picture, sets the stage for those good quarter to quarter comparisons that Wall Street gets all excited about down the road. Such earnings surprises always make the news, and often cause a severe decline in market price.

Ethics, trust and integrity are often challenged in an investment banking job. Look at the sub prime crisis, the near collapse of the mortgage giant, Fannie Mae, and the restatement of financial accounts of several investment banking firms in recent years. It is often unethical (or even unlawful) practices that are the main contributors to situations like these. Discuss an instance when you had to make an ethical decision ? what did you take into consideration? How did you finally come to a decision? These are insights into how you work and what the firm can expect from you in tough situations.

A) An organization achieves a proprietary position in its industry

► A) Hyper-competitive strategies are about how to compete in fast changing business environments.
► B) Innovation in terms of bases of competitive strategy
► C) Hyper-competitive strategies are about building bases of sustainable differentiation.
► D) Hyper-competitive strategies acknowledge the bases of competitive advantage may not be sustainable and that disruption of the status quo may be important.

D) Hyper-competitive strategies acknowledge the bases of competitive advantage may not be sustainable and that disruption of the status quo may be important

The recession and the stock market fall are still fresh in everyone?s mind. And being a person in the financial business, you are bound to experiences during the stock market fall. This question is asked not as much as to know whether you can handle such situations.
The best way to answer this question is to be truthful about any situation that you came across as the stock market fell.

► A) Game theory emphasizes short-term tactics to be employed in competitive strategies rather than a long-term strategy.
► B) Game theory is about thinking how competitors will respond in both the short term and the long term.
► C) Games assume competition between different players so game theory is especially useful in describing how competition occurs.
► D) Given the inter-dependence of competitors, game theory helps an understanding of how the decisions of one competitor affects upon another.

B) Game theory is about thinking how competitors will respond in both the short term and the long term

To answer this question perfectly, you would have to go back to your books and understand the concepts that were taught to you in business school. Make sure that you put across the point that being good with numbers, being in the knowledge of current and past market status, and having a good financial strategy that is unfailing are some of the most important qualities for a career in investment making.

The quality of forecasting the future market and the capacity to analyze and mitigate the risk involved and finally to have good returns in hand .

* Absolutely, and that is totally a function of the amount of experiences that is reflected in the overall methodology. The science is a near-equal partner with the management art that applies it to the day to day decision making, and all of this takes place within a structured and well thought out portfolio investment plan.
* However, it is not rocket science, and not even one fancy formula is necessary to do it profitably.
* Interestingly, I think that there is more Psychology than Mathematics and Finance involved, on both an individual and on a group basis, but that's all covered in the book.
* In my experience I've found that engineers and attorneys have the most difficulty with it while retailers and generalists have the least. The three people who I personally know have been using the approach since 1979 are a Restaurateur, a Dentist/Orthodontist, and a Manager.

Within the Brainwashing book methodology, there are management controls (checks and balances) that warn of problems at the companies we invest in. Specifically, a cut in or elimination of the dividend, and an S & P downgrade of the stock below investment grade. Rarely is there a situation where serious trouble won't come to our attention in time through one of these mechanisms.
I can think of only three glaring instances over the years where an Investment Grade Rating held up to the very end: Ames, Enron, and Friedman's. But, and key to the overall methodology, major individual portfolio disasters were avoided because of individual security % of portfolio diversification rules that must never be violated and which must always [absolutely always] be calculated using The Working Capital Model.
Also, in each instance, profits had been made on the security more than once prior to the disaster.