2010

The 2010 Flash Crash

On May 6, 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged about 1,000 points in minutes, then recovered most of the loss almost as quickly, all within a single afternoon. Investigators traced the chaos to a large automated sell order interacting badly with high frequency trading algorithms. The episode pushed regulators to introduce new circuit breakers and put algorithmic trading under far closer scrutiny.

Bonus Season, Explained

Across investment banking, private equity and hedge funds, year-end bonuses are often the majority of total compensation, sometimes dwarfing base salary entirely. Bonus season usually plays out from December through February, when firms finalize how the year performed and managers decide how to split the pool among their teams. It's also when a lot of hiring and quitting happens, since a disappointing number is often the final push someone needs to start interviewing elsewhere.

What's a Pitch Book?

A pitch book is the slide deck bankers use to convince a company to hire them, or to walk a client through a proposed deal. It usually covers the bank's credentials, an analysis of the company and its market, valuation work, and a recommended course of action. Junior analysts often spend late nights formatting and reformatting these, since one misaligned chart can mean starting the whole deck over.