Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection

Every summer, Wall St. performs an annual ritual. As if it’s shedding a layer of it’s own skin, the investment banks throw out the old and bring in the new. Along with the nice summer weather, a whole new crop of young naive interns show up, eager to learn more about a potential career in finance.

There will be some, whose hearts were never really in it, who will wash out early and will actually get to enjoy their summer. There will also be those who stick it out, but still return to school in the fall, shaken and questioning their decision to pick business as a career. Somewhere out there though, there will be a few crazy workaholics who thrive in the environment and who will want to keep coming back again and again for more abuse.

If you want to work in finance, chances are that sooner or later, you’ll need to get a series 7 license. The license allows you to sell securities and must be sponsored by a firm. Getting a company to sponsor you, isn’t always easy, but if a company likes the work you are doing, they will often agree to sponsor you, with the hope, that you’ll return as a full time employee.

In order to get your license, you must pass a test on all the different pieces that make up the securities industry. These include everything from how the back office works, to understanding more complicated option strategies. You don’t need to get an A+, in order to pass, in fact, all you really need is a 70% or better, but when your job is on the line, 70% can be a lot harder to get than you realize.

Recently, a friend of mine was misfortunate fortunate enough to take the series 7 exam and after she passed the test, instead of tearing up her notes and setting them on fire, she forwarded them to me in an email. The notes are really amazing. If you click through the photo at the top of this blog post, you can use Zooomr’s portals, in order to page through her illustrated series 7 study guide.

Hidden in it’s 13 pages is everything you need to know, in order to become a stock broker (or at least 70% of what you need to know, in order to pass.) A lot of it will not make sense, if you are not familiar with the material (they may not even make sense if you are familiar with the material ), but if you need to cram for the test the night before, these notes may prove to be quite helpful.

What I loved most about my friend’s notes, was the artistry that she put into them. Sure my own notes would have also included small illegible writing and plenty of coffee stains, but I never would have taken the time to use things like using a poker hand to illustrate hedging strategies or a bull and bear icons to illustrate when options go in and out of the money. Not only are the notes educational, but they are fun too.

While these series 7 cliff notes, aren’t detailed enough for someone to get away with not actually reading all of the material beforehand, they may prove useful, if you will be taking the test and need a good refresher on some of the concepts covered. It won’t replace the thick study guides that they normally pass out to the new recruits, but at least you won’t look so nerdy when you bring your study materials to lunch.

Posted on July 6th, 2007 by Davis
Filed under: Web 2.0