Online Finance Course Review: Essential Strategies To Reach Your Job Assurance Goals

The world of finance is ever-evolving and growing at a rapid pace. The finance industry has a variety of roles to offer out of which the position of a business analyst is backed by great significance. Indisputably, the financial analyst career is a very prospective one in recent times. 

Getting a job in the finance and banking sector is very challenging. The admission requirements might be as high as the pay. While many professionals have a postgraduate degree in business, mathematics, economics, or statistics, with the commencement of online and certification courses, companies are looking forward to candidates who have something more to offer than just a degree. Read on to know more…

Who is a Financial Analyst? 

financial analyst course

A financial analyst’s primary duty is to conduct financial analysis for both internal and external clients. Investment analyst, research analyst, equity analyst, securities analyst, or rating analyst are some possible job titles for the position.

If you want to become a financial analyst, then you have to know the work they do. Read along to know the roles and responsibilities of a financial analyst.

Roles and Responsibilities of a Financial Analyst

Depending on the company they work for, the sector they are in, and their level of seniority, analysts have a wide range of jobs and responsibilities. The most frequent activities they engage in are listed below:

  • A financial analyst has to gather all sorts of data and information that is essential for the performance of financial analysis.
  • After gathering data, it is organised especially by projecting the information on an Excel sheet.
  • A financial analyst looks at past results and historical data so that he/she can analyse the current information accurately.
  • Based on the current analysis, a financial analyst makes predictions and forecasts for the future of the business.
  • A skilled financial analyst also makes recommendations for the improvement of business operations.
  • Building effective Excel models is another important responsibility of a financial analyst.
  • When you want to convey your ideas you have to make presentations on the same. A business analyst is responsible for presenting financial ideas for the company.
  • Finally, generating the reports on the dashboards of a company is also the task of a financial analyst.

Choosing an Online Finance Course for Better Job Assurance

Online learning has been a part of our life more often, post-pandemic. An online finance course will help you to learn a lot of things that you may have missed out on in your years of graduation. The best financial analyst courses allow one to:

  • Know the practical application of fundamental tools and concepts of finance
  • Learn to make better investment decisions in the finance sector with the application of financial investment ideas
  • Nurture the financial management concepts and tools for better applicability in the near future
  • Know about financial management tools and concepts for making better dividend decisions for various firms or companies
  • Learn to go through the risk profile of the organisations, estimate the cost of capital, and perform the financial analysis
  • Understand the operations of a company that deals in the finance industry

Strategic Skills That Will Help in Job Assurance

The best strategy for reaching job assurance goals is acquiring all the key skills that a financial analyst needs. The essential skills that you need to acquire to become a financial analyst are as follows:

  • Good accounting skills 
  • Soft skills or interpersonal skills are other important requirements that cannot be overlooked
  • Good communication skills are always a plus point when you are in the finance industry
  • As a financial analyst, you will face a lot of problems. So, it is mandatory that you have great problem-solving skills.
  • Know various accounting and bookkeeping software
  • Experienced financial analysts can often be in charge of the whole finance team of a company. In that case, you will have to possess leadership and management qualities so that you can run a team
  • Critical thinking and strong analytical skills are inseparable parts of the life of a financial analyst. You have to constantly think in an analytical way to derive solutions to financial problems
  • Good organisational skills are also equally important

Conclusion

If you are passionate about becoming a financial analyst, then register yourself for the Financial Analysis Prodegree by Imarticus. It is a great course for beginners and professionals who are already a part of the finance industry and want to leave their mark on it.

A Transition Guide from Financial Analyst to Finance Professional: Best Financial Analyst Courses in India!

For those who can’t get enough numbers and charting data points, being a financial analyst might be the perfect job for us. But what does it take to become one? Where do finance professionals work? What’s their salary? Read on to find out!

Who is a Financial Analyst?

A financial analyst is a professional who is responsible for providing clients with advice on how to invest their money. After a chartered financial analyst course or online finance courses, they help and advice their clients to make better financial decisions.

Financial analysts are also responsible for ensuring that all transactions go according to plan within companies and institutions.

The chartered financial analyst (CFA) is a respectable and sought-after credential in finance. The CFA program is a rigorous, three-year training curriculum designed to prepare students for careers as investment professionals. CFAs are investment professionals qualified to offer advanced guidance on financial matters.

The number of candidates registering for CFA in India has been rising by 30% YoY for seven years, and today India is the third-largest market for CFA after China and the US.

Roles of a Financial Analyst

  • Financial Analysts determine a company’s present value, future business abilities and come up with forecasts for a business and help make an informed decision.
  • Analysts create & maintain spreadsheets and dashboards to help with the analysis and insight process. This gives a clear interpretation of trends & data to create models to value potential investment opportunities.
  • In-house financial analysts work as a team with various project managers to discuss performance or ascertain underlying causes of specific variances of performance.

Why choose a Career in Finance?

While there exist many careers, the financial services sector continues to be a leader and offers ample opportunities for people of all levels of experience.

The rising net disposable income drives the demand for financial services across multiple income brackets in India, which is also expected to emerge as the fourth-largest private wealth market globally by 2028. Such developments ensure a promising growth trajectory and a boom for aspirers in the long term.

How to Start Building a Career as a Financial Analyst?

Step 1: Earn a Bachelor’s Degree: A bachelor’s degree is often the primary qualification for a career as a financial analyst. Standard courses in economics, statistics, and related fields are relevant, but a more targeted degree is ideal.

Step 2: Attain Licensing and Certifications: Certifications courses for financial analysts like CFA and CFP help beginners boost their career while eying better employment opportunities. Many professionals may choose to obtain licenses and designations later in their careers.

Step 3: Build Employment Experience: To be a professional financial analyst, getting relevant work experience as early as possible, and work way up in the financial industry.

Step 4: Earn a Master’s Degree in Financial Analytics or Accounting

While on-job experience matters, a master’s degree in financial analytics can help fortify a resume.

Choose Improvisation with Imarticus Learning!

Wise aspirants may choose to improve their knowledge to increase interest from potential employers by obtaining a master’s degree. Imarticus Learning offers trending finance courses and certification programs.

With each course designed by Industry experts, the objective is to prepare students for industry. The financial analyst course is practical, engaging, and interactive and helps enhance my skill-set in finance and accounts.

Imarticus Learning empowers students through Financial Analysis Prodegree (FAP), a financial analyst course tailored by experts to use proper data analytics applications efficiently. The financial analytics course syllabus includes theoretical and practical knowledge through workshops with industry experts, which provides an excellent opportunity to learn.

Contact now via the Live Chat Support system for a transformative career or seek virtual guidance and get more details!

Technology Buzzwords: Buzzword Watch

Technology Buzzwords: Buzzword Watch

There are many buzzwords out there from leading analysts – Gartner Hype Cycle is very popular. IDC, Forrester, Frost & Sullivan etc. make similar predictions. Similarly, CompTIA.org is an IT Industry trade body.
This is an informal look at interesting concepts that may be worth paying attention to in the year ahead.

 

Buzzwords:

Cryptocurrency: A digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank.

Device Mesh: The device mesh refers to an expanding set of endpoints people use to access applications and information or interact with people, social communities, governments and businesses.

Containers: Open platforms to build, ship, componentize, & run distributed applications & move them across platforms and clouds with greater independence (e.g. Docker).

Quantified Self: A movement to incorporate technology into data acquisition on aspects of a person’s daily life in terms of inputs (e.g. food consumed), states (e.g. mood), and performance (mental and physical).

Haptics: Haptics is the science of applying touch (tactile) sensation and control to interaction with computer applications.

Per Gaze: A Google-Glass patent for an ad system that allows real-world ads to be translated into digital behaviors.

Internet Of Things: A proposed development of the Internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data.

Sensorization: Sensorization is a buzzword to define the extent or the trend of embedding as many sensors as possible within a device or appliance.

Gamification: Applying game mechanics and game design techniques to engage and motivate people to achieve their goals.

Software-defined Networking: An approach to computer networking that allows network administrators to manage network services through abstraction of higher-level functionality.

Mobile Wallets: Mobile wallets use near-field communication (NFC) chips inside mobile smart phones and tablets to transmit payment information.

Machine Learning: Type of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides computers with the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed.

Wearable Technology: Category of technology devices that can be worn by a consumer and often include tracking information related to health and fitness.

Location-based Authentication: Goes beyond user-id, password & biometrics to prove an individual’s identity and authenticity based on location. Pre-authorizations, reduce CNP fraud.

Data Stewardship: Management and oversight of an organization’s data assets to help provide business users with high-quality data that is easily accessible in a consistent manner.

Flexible Display: A flexible display is an electronic visual display which is flexible in nature; differentiable from the more prevalent traditional flat screen displays used in most electronics devices.

Screenless Displays: Part of an emerging technology in the field of displays that are likely to be a game changer and would change the way displays are used. e.g. holograms (like Star wars), LCD panels, cockpit windows

Augmented Reality: A technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. Augmented reality adds graphics, sounds, haptic feedback and smell to the natural world as it exists. Best example – Pokemon Go.

These are buzzwords that you will be seeing used in major Retail Banks across the world. Retail Banks have really developed over time as a dynamic workspace. Learn all about how Retail Banks function in our retail banking and wealth Management course.


Written by Alex Harrison.

Introduction to Capital Market

What Are Capital Markets?

Capital markets basically deal with stocks and bonds in general. In simple words, any firm is it private or government, is always in need of funds, so as to finance its various operations to achieve certain long-term goals. Thus every firm is supposed to acquire these very funds or capital; for which, it sells stocks and bonds. These stocks and bonds are basically like shares, all of which are in the companies name. For instance, when the government of any country, issues what are known as treasury bonds, it basically is tapping into the capital markets, thereby generating capital.
This process is basically known as the IPO or Initial Public Offering. Capital Markets are largely divided into two types, the primary markets, and secondary markets. The companies and governments sell their securities in the primary market, whereas the investors trade with these securities in what is known as the secondary markets. Thus, it is safe to say that the capital markets are an important area of the finance industry.

These markets are more like the foundations on the basis of which, various companies and governments are able to invest in businesses, generate employment as well as better infrastructure. One of the core responsibilities of any capital market includes getting the people who are looking to invest, in contact with those looking for capital. Put so simply, this sounds like a very easy task to do, but in reality, a lot of professionals, perform this high-pressure task, to get the desired results.
The private companies look to raise capitals for various reasons, other than just expanding their businesses. They could be looking to finance start-up business ventures, or to battle with the sudden decline in the turnover, or for buying out the competition. While it may seem like it is only those very companies, which are profited from this whole business, it is not so. The very reason someone would want to provide capital is that that person would be looking to gain profit from their financing efforts.
A lot of people know of capital markets as stock exchanges. These are places where anyone can invest and are more commonly known as the public markets. This is where the Initial Public Offering takes place, which is the first time when any firm, comes out into the public to sell their securities. The next step where securities are bought and sold by investors is known as secondary markets, as spoken about earlier.
These secondary markets take place, subsequently after the primary market proceedings are over. Just as there are public markets, there also exist the lesser-known private markets, which are also known as exempt markets. These can be called as more lenient as compared to the public markets, primarily because there are no regulations to be met. Also, this is seen as a more cost-effective way for companies to fund their financing needs.
Thus the arena of capital markets has come to garner more attention by a lot of people, which is why candidates look for programs, which can make them proficient in the inner workings of capital markets. Imarticus Learning one of the best education institute in India offers industry-endorsed courses in capital markets, finance, and investment banking.

A Beginners’ Guide Investing in The Stock Market

There is no better way to learn than by doing. So we at Imarticus Learning believe that the best way to prepare for an interview for Corporate Finance jobs is to actively invest in the market in whichever way possible thereby putting some ‘skin in the game’, which ensures you know what’s going on. While FMVC and our Diploma in Corporate finance focus on Interview Prep using mock interviews and providing sample questions, we always encourage our students to actively participate in the stock market by opening Phantom Accounts.
Before you begin actively investing, you need to answer a few questions :

1. What are you doing this for? If you are doing it for the course, we advise you to open a phantom account, which essentially means you do everything but invest real money. Regardless of if you open a phantom account or the real thing, the following steps will help.
2. What kind of investor are you? Are you a risk taker, risk-averse, or a little bit of both? This is what we call investor profiling and we delve into this a great deal in our Retail Banking and Wealth Management Diploma, one of India’s leading programs/courses in Retail Banking and Wealth Management. Being a risk taker is simple. It requires a strong stomach and a healthy attitude to losing some money because the equity market is volatile. While you will be making decisions based on sound analysis, sometimes things go wrong and you could lose all your capital, hard earned money you have been saving for a long time. How do you feel about that? If you shudder at the thought and think you will lose a lot of sleep then you are probably risk averse. Once you realize this, you can then invest your portfolio keeping that in mind and put aside a small amount for risky ventures that offer spectacular returns and perhaps put the rest in conservative investments with lower returns.
3. How much time do you have? Picking stocks is hard work and there’s a reason why Mutual fund managers get paid so much to do it. So if you don’t have the time, we suggest starting out with an index fund like Franklin India Index or HDFC Index Fund – Sensex. An index fund is a mutual fund that invests in a predefined stocks of an index in a percentage allocation that resembles the index. Your portfolio could be a mix of different index funds, NSE Small caps, BSE Sensex and maybe even an international index fund.
4. I want to invest individually. We suggest creating your own index fund and take control of the percentage allocation thereby doing some work of your own while having the Sensex as a guide. If you plan to move away from the index, then create a portfolio of 12-20 well-chosen stocks that are extremely well covered and have excellent investor relations.
Here are some broad rules
a. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket or one sector
b. Understand the concept of defensive stocks and cyclicality
c. Don’t completely trust your broker but aim to create a good relationship
d. If you plan to invest using an online platform- the preferred method, then remember to read, research and plan meticulously and keep a record and mark to market regularly
Our next blog post will focus on the technicalities of opening your first account as well understanding various stock market terminology.