A capital market analyst’s main responsibilities include gathering information and compiling and analyzing data on financial investments. He or she works for a bank or as a freelance consultant for a variety of clients. Depending on whether the capital market analyst works for a larger firm or as a consultant, the responsibilities differ slightly. An analyst for an investment bank is usually only concerned with the bank’s investment portfolio and potential acquisitions. Because of the variety of individual clients associated with the consultancy, a freelance capital market analyst is typically involved with the analysis of a more varied collection of investments.
A capital market analyst’s basic responsibilities include compiling data on all investment accounts under review at regular intervals. Monthly interest earnings, yearly overall performance of a specific investment, and a five-year outlook based on recent performance will all be included in the data. The capital market analyst must take this information, assess its accuracy, and then determine how those figures fit into the investment bank’s or individual client’s financial goals. Based on the client’s or bank’s specific goals, the analyst may then compile a report outlining the current state and future viability of the investment. The analyst may then make a recommendation as to whether the investment should be kept in a portfolio, sold, or changed to better suit the investor’s needs.
Investment bank capital market analysts typically focus on a specific investment area. An investment bank, for example, typically has an entire department of analysts, each of whom is responsible for a different type of investment, such as bonds, stocks, futures, treasury notes, and currency trading. The investment bank may attempt to diversify in a variety of ways, but each analyst’s analysis will largely remain the same. The capital market analyst at an investment bank has a set of bank priorities and goals, which, for the most part, do not change over short periods of time.
A capital market analyst works with private clients in a similar capacity to a financial adviser, identifying short and long-term needs such as savings, retirement, and investment strategies based on an aggressive or conservative approach. A private client, unlike an investment bank, is more likely to require changes to an investment strategy as a result of life-changing events such as the birth of a child, the loss of employment, or medical issues. When analyzing investments for private investment clients, a capital market analyst must consider a broader range of factors.