I'm a finance student and I recently made a DCF model so I could stray away from plain Excel. I built it for my investment club pitch, then ran it on four companies. All four came out well below their market price, and I'm trying to figure out if that's a real signal or a problem with my model.

Assumptions:

• Base year: calendar 2025, rebuilt from quarterly SEC filings (Apple and Micron have September fiscal years)
• 2026E and 2027E growth: Yahoo Finance analyst averages, then my own judgment
• Risk-free rate 5.19% (10-year Treasury), equity risk premium 4.5%, tax rate 21%
• Betas: Apple 1.1, Amazon 1.3 (regression gave 1.5), Tesla 1.8, Micron 1.6 (regression gave 2.35, inflated by the 2026 memory surge)

I didn't tune any inputs to close the gap, I just used a standard template. So my questions:

1. Is a 5.19% risk-free rate plus a 4.5% ERP too harsh for mega caps right now? Would you use a lower ERP or a normalized rate?
2. For Micron, should I trust the regression beta or adjust it? And how do you value a cyclical stock in what might be a peak year?
3. Apple needing an 85% margin seems crazy. Is that a sign my terminal value is off, or is the market just paying for something a DCF doesn't capture?

Any feedback is appreciated, I'm still learning!

And yes, I know some people say DCFs are not the best tool out there. Lmk if anyone wants to see the tool.

So I’m about to do a final round investment banking interview in a couple of days. I aced the technical rounds, but now they want me to do a 1 hour technical model in person and 2 hour presentation / discussion of the results. What should I expect? And how do I get prepared for this interview.

P.S….. I’ve been studying the top 500 IB question guidebook for a while, and I’m ~80% through the FMVA (CFI) certificate, so I’m not a complete beginner to financial modeling, but have never built my own model from scratch. Any resources I can use from now until then to get prepared? Give me advice chat

Is Certification worth it or I can also get job after learning it from YouTube and make some projects to show credibility?

Hi everyone, I am an accounting and finance student who hasn’t done a ton of modeling. What is the best pathway/roadmap of the order you should learn models as someone who is going into an analyst role doing business valuations and financial statement analysis. Doing small M&A for businesses and basic valuations.

I’ve been in finance for over a decade but now direct AI to build everything. Does anything still think courses or classes are worth it?

Hi All,

What’s the best resource to learn financial modeling fast? Any specific recommendations for someone interested in biotech equity research?

For background on me, I feel like I am starting from zero. Currently in a middle office finance role (trading and operations adjacent) and have background working on a therapeutic with a small biotech.

Hi everyone, is it worth it spending the money on this. I’m having a little trouble finding a financial analyst job (fp&a) to be more specific. It’s been one year since graduation and because I didn’t do an internship or have any experience. And internships are only available for undergrad and graduate students I thought of going back to school but I’m not trying to get any loans is too expensive. Has this certificate helped anyone with no experience land their first job in the industry?

I'm looking to learn financial modeling with nothing more than basic excel knowledge. Is CFI student self-study my best option/worth it at $250?

Curious how companies with AI-heavy products are actually forecasting their AI costs.

Tracking historical spend seems relatively straightforward now; you can see token usage, API spend, model usage, etc. But how do you actually model what that cost will look like in 6–12 months?

For example, if customer numbers grow, AI adoption increases, usage per customer changes, or you switch between models, how do finance teams translate all of that into a forecast?

Do you have a proper driver-based model for things like:

customers × AI usage × model calls × token usage × model pricing

and then use that to forecast COGS / gross margin?

Or in practice is it much simpler?? e.g. taking historical AI/cloud spend and applying a growth assumption?

Particularly interested in hearing from AI-native / AI-heavy SaaS companies where inference costs are actually meaningful to the economics of the product.

Would be great to hear how people are handling this today and whether it’s actually a difficult problem or fairly straightforward once you have the right data...

I am trying to model cash flows for a real estate investment rental property. Does anyone have a good free resource on how to do so?

Hi Everyone,

I’m preparing for the next round for a Project Controller / Project Control role CIBC.

Recruiter explained that the next stage will be an individual ~30-minute written assessment. They said it will focus on project financials and basic understanding, followed by an interaction with a Senior Director where they may ask questions based on my responses.

For anyone who has gone through a similar Project Controller/PCO case study, what should I prepare?

Specifically:

1. What types of 30-minute project-financial case studies should I expect?
2. Should I prepare for business-case/business planning, or focus mainly on project financial analysis?
3. What calculations should I be comfortable doing quickly?
   • Actual vs forecast
   • Variance %
   • EAC / ETC
   • Budget remaining
   • Resource-cost analysis
   • Forecast/reforecast
4. What type of written recommendations are usually expected?
5. Are there any good websites, YouTube channels, books, courses or practice case studies you recommend for Project Controller/Project Financial Management assessments?
6. If you've interviewed for a similar CIBC/Big 5 Canada bank Project Controller or PCO role, what topics would you recommend practicing?

I'm particularly looking for resources that teach how to approach and structure the case, not just accounting theory.

Thanks in advance! Any advice or practice resources would be greatly appreciated.

I'm trying to make a couple of DCFs for some biotech names. I know HOW to, but I can't do it fast enough and claude can't do it well enough with the speed I'm looking for. Any tips?

Lets say a company filed their S1, without price range or share count or the defined target capital to raise?

How should one model to get its pricing band assuming we have an idea of its post ipo total share count.

CFI now has a page explaining remote proctoring through Proctorio for certification final exams, but I haven't been able to confirm whether this is actually being used for the FMVA Final Exam yet.

I want to know what all certificate I can add in my resume to get job in finance after ca finals exams

Hi all, I'm practising my LBO modelling and am a little rusty. Would anyone with LBO / investment modelling experience be willing to take a quick look at my model today and share any feedback or flag anything that looks off?

I'd really appreciate the help and am very happy to tip / buy you a coffee for your time. Thanks!

I’m a finance student and recently cleared CFA Level 1. I’m planning to buy a laptop in the ₹60,000–₹70,000 range.
I’m confused between a MacBook and a Windows laptop (particularly the Samsung Galaxy Book series).
My primary uses will be:
Advanced Excel and financial modelling
Valuation, equity research and financial analysis
PowerPoint presentations and Microsoft Office
Learning financial modelling and other finance-related tools
General productivity and occasional entertainment

Hi I’m very new to financial modeling, this is the first one I’ve made and if someone could take a look and help me with some issues in the, that’d be great! The company I’m doing is TTWO btw. I can probably send the model in DMs

Hey everyone, hope you're doing well!

I'm looking to dive deeper into the Retail sector (both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar/omnichannel), and I've noticed that the modeling dynamics here are quite specific—heavy focus on inventory turnover, seasonality, working capital, gross margin by category, shrink/waste, etc.

I’d love to get your input on a few things:

Modeling: What are the main "gotchas" or essential line items that shouldn't be missing in a financial or operational model for retail? How do you usually project inventory and working capital realistically?

Courses/Certifications: Do you recommend any specific courses (online, certifications, etc.) focused on finance, modeling, or strategy for the retail sector? I already know the basics of Excel and traditional 3-statement financial modeling, but I'm looking for something with a strong sector-specific focus.

Books/Readings: Are there any must-read books or reference materials on retail economics and business models that you'd suggest?
If anyone currently works in the industry, covers the sector, or has good resources to share, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Thanks! 🚀

I have some issues with my current laptop being not powerful enough to run large and heavy project finance models. I am thinking of upgrading mine in the next cycle and was wondering what models people are typically using at IBs, boutiques etc.?

My current one is lenovo thinkpad e14 gen 6 - 16gb RAM, intel core ultra 5 125U - generally works fine but runs out of memory quickly and CPU isn't performing the best

Hello i am currently learning for equity research analyst from TVS The Valuation School . i have full course for Equity Research Cohort .

From course i have learned

1.how to read annual report and concalls analysis

1. Able to understand business model

3.Somehow able to understand and learning about Ratios

4.from concall i am able to understand how's the management perspective towards share holders . Are they doing the things in the favour of shareholders or not ?

Now the problem is i am unbale to make report , unable to identify financial analysis and dcf valuations calculations and post them in into report unable to judge financials and convert it in to report .

Please somebody guide me how can i do this . In course i am unable to understand or can say lost the interest in making report .

I picked a company MARICO for making equity report but lost interest into it . I have also posted for 24 days about Marico in my linkedin but lost interest after that .

Please help me or guide me with the report preperation .

I'm a buy-side equity research analyst covering IT services. I moved into research recently from a strategy background, so I can build and update models but my fundamentals have gaps.

Where I struggle:

- Linking the three statements properly, and knowing how a change in one flows through the other two

- Auditing inherited models: finding why the BS doesn't balance, broken links, buried hardcodes, and then fixing them without breaking something else

What I'm looking for:

- Self-paced and genuinely hands-on (building models myself, not watching someone else build)

- In-depth, not intro-level

- WSP and BIWS look great but are too expensive right now

Already doing Damodaran for the valuation side, and looking at A Simple Model and FMWC cases.

What actually worked for you? Especially interested in anything that taught you to debug/audit models, not just build clean ones. Free resources, practice cases, or online courses you'd vouch for are all welcome.

I know this question gets asked a lot, but where do I start if I want to learn not just modelling but the logic and concepts behind it, like how to actually think like an analyst? Stuff like how to approach valuing a company, work out what assumptions make sense and actually solve problems with a model instead of just following steps.

Does anyone recommend textbooks, YouTubers, guides etc. (paid and unpaid)? Or if anyone has a megaguide or a massive tutorial that covers all of this, that would be super helpful.

I've heard both BIWS and WSP are highly regarded for modelling, so I plan to start those after I learn the concepts.

Beginner, So Quite Confused On How Are things Structured and Executed Overall... Heard IRR, etc.. so Any Explanations On Resources, Guides Or Fixed Income Info Would Be Helpfull.. Thankyou...