Market Research In Finance

Pick a company Read last 3 annual reports Read last 12 earnings call transcripts Find relevant information on the company Calculate key ratios for it Repeat for another company in the same sector See your understanding of the sector soar in a few weeks. Not sure how or where to start? 4 resources to help you 1) What to read in an earnings transcript  (using Eicher Motors as example) https://lnkd.in/gqaYwkNM 2) What to read in an annual report  (using Titan as example) https://lnkd.in/dtt674gu 3) Quick Financial Analysis using Screener  (using Ultratech Cement as example) https://lnkd.in/dFM9ypEa 4) Ratio Analysis: A Step by Step Guide in Excel  (Using SAIL as an example) https://lnkd.in/dd9HwiqC Subscribe to our channel for more such videos. https://lnkd.in/dR4nvGxd ------- Peeyush Chitlangia, CFA I help you build a career in Valuation and Investment Banking

How often do you rely on your intuition to make a decision? In other words, when you’re uncertain about the right path to choose, do you flip a coin or do you go with the choice that just “feels right”? It turns out that “going with your gut” has a solid basis in #neuroscience. The “enteric nervous system” is a network of 100 million nerve cells embedded in the lining of the gut. Its primary purpose is to regulate digestion, but it also communicates with the #brain, influencing mood and overall well-being. Your ability to listen to these bodily signals is called “interoception” and is one of your five internal senses (more in another post). People with greater sensitivity to interoceptive signals perform better in laboratory studies of risky #DecisionMaking. But does this translate into the real world? Narayanan Kandasamy and colleagues decided to find out. They recruited 18 financial traders working on a London trading floor – a group that is very familiar with risky decision making – and asked whether their interoceptive abilities were linked with their trading performance. To measure their interoceptive skills, each participant was asked to count their resting heart beats over a random time interval without touching a pulse point. This was actually performed six different times to provide a more robust measure of interoceptive ability. They found:   👉 On average, traders were almost 20% better able to detect their heart rate than a set of matched controls. 👉 Traders’ scores on the heartbeat counting task predicted their average daily profit and loss over the previous year. 👉 Interoceptive ability predicted survival in the financial markets. A trader’s heartbeat counting score predicted the number of years they had survived as a trader. Interestingly, the traders with the least experience (1-4 years) showed no difference in interoceptive ability from the controls. Those with more experience (5-8 years) were significantly better, though. The long term traders (>8 years) performed the best by far. The findings suggest that the “gut feelings” of financial traders are genuine and valuable physiological signals, informing their decision making. It also suggests that sensitivity to these signals will either improve over time or the trader will likely leave the profession. It would be interesting to know whether professions that routinely involve risky decision making could enhance their recruitment success by adding simple measures of interoceptive ability to their hiring process. Obviously it is not the main criterion for success, but given multiple strong candidates, it might improve the ability to select people likely to succeed. Can you feel your heartbeat without checking your pulse? I can sometimes but not always reliably.

🔬 How To Measure UX Research Impact (+ PDF) (https://lnkd.in/etNUJEtx), an updated framework to define and measure UX research impact across UX, business, organization, engagement, structure and reach. Wonderful work by Karin den Bouwmeester. 👏🏽 Teams often struggle showing the actual value of research, and it's often very difficult to attribute business impact to initial research initiatives. Impactful research uncovers insights that are rooted in urgent problems and severe bottlenecks. The higher the urgency, the more visibility research initiatives will have. As Karin suggests, I would always start by exploring signals that something isn’t quite right and requires attention. For example: – Significant drop-offs in the funnel – Increased support tickets on a specific feature or flow – Low engagement with a newly launched feature – 2–4 star reviews citing UX issues – High abandonment after onboarding – Teams making assumptions without any data – Workarounds or shortcuts reported by users – Insights from sales and customer success teams – Analytics showing repeated navigation loops Karin suggests to measure UX research impact on 3 levels: Outcomes, Organizational Influence and Research Practice. --- 🔹 Level 1: Outcomes — What value does research create? We are exploring the business value, user value and societal value that research delivers. The question is how the work helps reduce risk, increase retention and support user's goals while reducing harm or bias. Example metrics: 📈 Order value ✅ Task success rate ❌ User errors ♿ Accessibility score --- 🔶 Level 2: Organizational Influence — Is research driving change? Often research gets stuck due to poor interest or low influence. We study if research findings are picked up and acted upon. If they shape strategy and inform roadmaps, and how engaged are stakeholders when it comes to research. Example metrics: 🧭 Product changes driven by research 📑 References to research in meetings/docs 📩 Number of research requests 👀 Number of observers in research sessions --- ♦️ Level 3: Research Practice — What are we doing and how? Here the question is how deeply research is embedded in day-to-day operations and product development cycle. We study how much research is happening, and when, and if it's a driver or an afterthought. Example metrics: 📊 Ratio discovery research / testing 📆 Studies per quarter/year 📁 Use of research templates We don’t have to measure everything at once. But we can start by measuring something impactful. We always try to locate bottlenecks with high visibility and high priority first, and focus on them. Even if they are internal and not customer-facing. It won’t always work, but it might help put UX research into a bright spotlight — and that could be a very good start. And a huge thanks to Karin den Bouwmeester for putting it all together! 🙏🏾 #ux #research

Use this simple approach to master the Bond Market. Nominal bond yields can be thought of as the interaction between: 1️⃣ Growth expectations 2️⃣ Inflation expectations 3️⃣ Term premium 1. Growth expectations When it comes to economic growth we must consider two angles: structural and cyclical growth. Structural economic growth can be generated through more people joining the labor force (good demographics) and/or through a more productive use of labor and capital (strong productivity trends). The ability of an economy to generate structural growth is an important driver behind long-dated bond yields (strong structural growth = structurally higher long-dated yields and vice versa). Short-term economic cycles also matter for bond yields and particularly at the short-end. Cyclical growth trends are driven by the credit cycle, the fiscal stance, earnings growth, labor market trends and more - the healthier they are, the higher short-end bond yields can be pushed also as a result of a likely tightening from Central Banks that might grow worried about economic over-heating and inflationary pressures in such an environment. 2. Inflation expectations The second component driving nominal bond yields is inflation: but NOT TODAY'S inflation - instead we are referring to long-term inflation expectations. Central Banks might temporarily react to concentrated bursts of inflationary pressures by raising short-term interest rates but when it comes to long-dated bond yields investors will always pay close attention to inflation expectations. That's because consumers and borrowers will tend to make important decisions based on these rather than on volatile short-term trends in inflation. 3. Term premium An investor looking to get fixed income exposure can do that via buying 3-month T-Bills and rolling them each time they mature for the next 10 years. Alternatively, it can decide to purchase 10-year Treasuries today. What's the difference? Interest rate risk! Buying a 10-year bond today rather than rolling T-Bills for the next 10 years exposes investors to risks – term premium compensates for this risk. The lower the uncertainty about growth and inflation down the road, the lower the term premium and vice versa. 💡 The Main Takeaway 💡 If you want to make sense of bond yields, a useful approach to use is to think of them as the result of growth expectations, inflation expectations and term premium. P.S. If you liked this post you'll love my macro research. I share my macro analysis every day with the biggest institutional investors and hedge funds in the world. Get your FREE trial here👇🏼 https://lnkd.in/dyFFJp-z

Want to become a good Equity research analyst and get a hold on 5 sectors? Here is your mini MBA crash course. A Sector Wise Guide - 1. Aviation Sector – (IndiGo, SpiceJet) Objective: Understand cost structures, yield metrics, aircraft leasing, and cyclicality. Annual Reports: Read IndiGo’s (InterGlobe Aviation) ARs from 2015 onwards. Concalls: Focus on yield per passenger, load factors, fuel costs, and ASK/RPK data. Books - 'Sky High: The Story of IndiGo" by Tarun Shukla and "The Indigo Story" by Shelley Vishwajeet Interviews: Watch Rahul Bhatia, Ronojoy Dutta, and Aditya Ghosh’s talks. Key Metrics: Crude oil price, ATF cost, rupee-dollar FX, airport charges, aircraft utilization. 2. Banking Sector – (HDFC Bank, ICICI, SBI, etc.) Objective: Master credit underwriting, liability franchise, NIMs, NPAs, and regulatory changes. Annual Reports: HDFC Bank ARs from 1995 to present – observe evolution of retail banking. Concalls: Track loan book growth, cost of funds, asset quality, CASA ratio. Management Interviews: Deep insights from Aditya Puri (HDFC), Sashidhar Jagdishan. Also read - “A Bank for the Buck” by Tamal Bandyopadhyay and RBI Financial Stability Reports Key Metrics: GNPA/NNPA, credit-deposit ratio, CAR, provisioning norms. 3. Gold Finance – (Muthoot, Manappuram) Objective: Learn how NBFCs manage short-term, collateral-backed lending efficiently. Annual Reports: Read 10 years of Muthoot & Manappuram reports. Concalls: Study auction trends, LTV ratios, gold price impact, rural credit demand. Interviews: George Alexander Muthoot, V.P. Nandakumar (Manappuram). Reports: RBI & CRISIL whitepapers on NBFCs and gold loan segment. Key Metrics: LTV, AUM growth, gold price volatility, collection efficiency. 4. IT – (TCS, Infosys, Wipro) Objective: Understand global IT services, digital transformation, deal wins, and talent management. Annual Reports: Infosys & TCS 10-year ARs Concalls: Focus on geography/client exposure, margins, attrition, order book. Key Metrics: Utilization rate, billing rates, attrition, USD-INR impact, BFSI exposure. 5. Manufacturing – (Dixon, Kaynes, Polycab, Bharat Forge, KEI, Havells) Objective: Gain insight into capacity utilization, margin levers, export competitiveness. Annual Reports: Study all the ARs for 10-15 years Concalls: Focus on raw material costs, margin trends, export markets, and capacity addition. Key Metrics: Operating leverage, capex, RM dependency, working capital cycles. Disclosure - Stock names taken are not a recommendation, This is not an exhaustive study course, there's always more to study :) All the best!

Consumer Credit Alert Consumer credit is showing significant stress —> 90-day delinquency rates are approaching multi-year highs. This deterioration is particularly noteworthy given that 1) corporate default rates continue to trend downward, 2) investor appetite for credit remains robust with credit markets strong, 3) consumers enjoy strong with wage and employment gains. The New York Federal Reserve's Equifax data (chart below) reveals concerning trends in the auto loan sector. Current 90-day+ delinquency rates have reached 2.96%, the highest level observed in the past 25 years, excluding the Global Financial Crisis period. This time series data, spanning from 2000 to present, underscores the degree of severity. While traditional market wisdom would suggest moving up-in-credit quality (from subprime to Alt-A, and from Alt-A to Prime) during such periods, the current environment presents unique challenges. Year-over-year data indicates elevated delinquency rates across all consumer FICO tiers, suggesting broader systemic stress in consumer credit markets. Given these conditions, ABS (Asset-Backed Securities) and ABL (Asset-Based Lending) investors should selectively reduce exposure to consumer credit segments. In the Public Credit market overweight in select positions within CLOs, CMBS, RMBS, and select non-consumer ABS is my recommendation. A more detailed analysis with supporting data will be presented in Monday's discussion. Happy Friday to all.

A global landscape of sustainability disclosure standards is here!    Released by United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)'s Risk Centre, the report highlights:    - IFRS S1 & S2 emerging as the global baseline (49 jurisdictions, 47 adopting ISSB)  - Growing interoperability across ISSB, ESRS and GRI  - Double materiality gaining traction among regulators  - Banks and corporates increasingly quantifying risk and resilience    ⚠️ What’s still missing from disclosure: - Persistent data gaps and inconsistent methods  - Limited disclosure of financial impacts  - Double materiality hard to apply across jurisdictions  - More capacity-building and clearer guidance needed    It’s a great report filled with practical case studies. 📰 Read more about my views on the changing sustainability reporting landscape here:  https://lnkd.in/eq--s35R   #SustainabilityDisclosure #ISSB #IFRS #ESRS #GRI #Sustainability #ClimateFinance #ESG #CorporateReporting 

The 2026 Worldpay Global Payments Report is out, and it’s a must-read for anyone who wants to understand payments. This is my analysis. 1. Global Overview: • Wallets are the entry point to commerce (56% of e-com and 33% of POS), aggregating cards, A2A, and alternative rails. • Cards are shifting from front-end to infrastructure, still driving 48% of POS and 31% of e-com. • A2A wins when tied to domestic infrastructure - but fragmentation limits global scale. • E-com is growing faster (7.5% CAGR vs 3.4% POS), concentrating future value in digital-native methods in online journeys. 2. Regional Comparison: • Western markets remain card-heavy, while Asia is already operating on alternative rails • A2A remains single-digit globally, but has scaled in LATAM (20%+) and MEA (15%), tied to domestic systems • Growth is skewed to MEA (11%), LATAM (9%), APAC (8.5%) vs. Europe/NA (~6-7%), shifting global share over time 3. POS: From Terminals to Apps: • Payment apps scale faster than the market (8% vs 3.4% CAGR) – to reach 46% of POS by 2030 • APAC has already made the shift (China 89%, India 65%, Thailand 56% POS via apps) • QR codes remove infrastructure dependency, accelerating adoption in APAC and LATAM • Europe is opening up, shifting from a closed card system to a competitive app layer 4. A Multipolar Landscape: • Scale is shifting to domestic networks (UPI, PIX, Alipay), reducing reliance on global card schemes • Cross-border is becoming a connectivity problem, solved by linking local systems (vs. expanding global ones) • Adoption scales regionally first (APAC corridors), not globally, reinforcing fragmentation • Europe is the exception, attempting a unified layer (Wero) instead of connecting existing systems 5. Wallets as the Control Layer: • Wallet funding reflects local payment norms: cards in the West, A2A in markets like India, and local methods in each region • What changes is not the rail, but controls - wallets sit on top and decide how it’s used • As non-card rails grow, wallets become the integration layer, expanding into super apps where payments power broader ecosystems 6. BNPL as a Core Wallet Component: • BNPL is no longer standalone but a standard feature inside wallets and checkout • Shift from transaction monetization to lifecycle ownership, expanding into accounts, cards, and ecosystems • The paradox: instead of replacing cards, BNPL drives installment demand back onto card rails 7. The Crypto Integration: • Still niche in direct use (0.2% of e-com), but growing fast (16% CAGR), with scale coming via fiat-linked flows (vs. native crypto payments) • Adoption through integration, not replacement: cards, wallets and stablecoins bridge crypto into existing rails, especially in x-border and B2B Analysis: Panagiotis Kriaris, source: Worldpay Global Payments Report 2026 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫: https://lnkd.in/dkqhnxdg

The biggest blind spot for Private Equity in any Professional Services investment is rarely the numbers. It’s the people. For years, this was exactly what made Private Equity so uncomfortable with the sector. The economics didn’t follow the usual playbook: margins were distorted by the draw system, leadership structures were fragile and attrition risk was too high for comfort. Traditional Quality of Earnings reports couldn’t capture what mattered most, because what mattered most wasn’t in the spreadsheet. Financials tell you where a business has been. But only people, how they’re led, how they’re paid, how they feel about the firm behind closed doors, reveal where the business is truly heading. Misaligned incentives. Quiet cultural churn. A lack of succession. These issues don’t show up in the CIM. But they’re often exactly why growth stalls after the deal closes. Financials tell you where a firm has been. But the data showing talent velocity tells you where it's going. If you’re evaluating a people-driven platform, ask yourself: - What do the firm’s top performers really think? - Is the brand strong enough to attract and retain rainmakers? - Are leadership incentives built for long-term value creation, or just short-term retention? You can’t fix what you don’t fully understand. And by the time you do, it’s usually too late. There are ways to surface these insights credibly and quickly. We do this work every week. If you're thinking about talent risk, we should talk.

Electric car sales rose to new records in nearly 100 countries in 2025 – and close to 30% of all cars sold globally this year are set to be electric. Battery price declines & policy responses to the current energy crisis can add to EVs' momentum. More in the International Energy Agency (IEA)'s new Global EV Outlook 2026 → https://iea.li/4eXJduC By 2035, electric cars could account for about half of global car sales, even without any new policy announcements. This would mean as many as 510 million EVs on the road (excluding 2- & 3-wheelers) – up from nearly 80 million today. The report → https://iea.li/4dRwR69 The momentum behind EVs is particularly strong in Southeast Asia. Sales in the region more than doubled in 2025 and rose by 80% in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier. A combination of market factors, policies & innovation are supporting the uptake of EVs globally. Recent declines in battery prices have helped make electric cars more affordable, while higher-voltage batteries are paving the way for faster charging. Read the IEA's Global EV Outlook 2026 in full on our website → https://iea.li/4dRwR69 We’ve also updated two key online tools for exploring trends in EV data & policies around the world. → The data: https://iea.li/4f2MFUZ → The policies: https://iea.li/49e3uIN