What are the Different Investment Analyst Jobs?

Generally, those with investment analyst jobs are responsible for gathering and analyzing a collection of information and events that may affect the performance of investment vehicles. Some of these investment vehicles may include stocks, bonds, and currency values in local and foreign countries. Investment analyst jobs within the buying side of investing typically involve working for companies that want to invest money in different investment vehicles. The selling side of most investment analyst jobs is normally found with companies that have stocks and bonds to sell. As investment media consultants, investment analyst jobs might entail working for a financial or business news media outlet.

An investment analyst may work in a bank, for investment firms, securities firms, insurance companies, or media outlets. The level of responsibility may depend on the type of company where the investment analyst is employed. For the most part, investment analyst duties are to make predictions and recommendations based on performance information gathered about investment funds. Investment analysts are skilled at identifying trends in the economic environment that may affect decisions to buy or sell investments. The investment analyst may look for conditions that suggest optimal or sluggish times in the stock market.

The buying side of an investment analyst's job is typically within investment firms that manage different types of funds. Primary duties may involve research and analysis of the stocks within each fund. The analysis is used to make predictions about the profit potential of the stocks.

If market conditions seem to suggest the stocks will perform poorly, investment analysts will recommend to the fund manager to get rid of those stocks. They usually submit these recommendations in a report that includes a forecast of the earnings potential for the funds. The reports may also be used to determine which stocks to buy to replace low performing stocks.

The duties of those with investment analyst jobs that focus on the selling side of investing are similar to the buying side, but in reverse. The research and analysis is based on which companies are considered good investment potential. The result is a report from investment analysts that explains why particular stocks could be sold to potential investors.

Factors used to make these determinations may include which companies have a competitive advantage, a solid senior management team, and how the market value of company stock compares to others within the same industry. Recommendations in the report are made based on a number of assumptions. The reports are distributed to individual investors and investment firms, rather than just a fund manager.

As more media outlets provide news shows about stock market performance, some may hire investment analysts to offer advice to the audience. Within this capacity, investment analysts may work for a firm or independently, offering analysis, recommendations, and predictions about different investments. The impact of global conditions for companies, stocks, and bonds are analyzed in broad discussions in these types of new shows.