, Columnist
I Was a Wall Street Analyst. They Are Irrelevant
Bureaucracy is eroding the shrinking value-add that sell-side research can provide.
Wall Street analysts are a dying breed.
Photographer: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
A recent Bloomberg article sounded the alarm on Wall Street research jobs. At the world’s 15 biggest banks, the number of equity analysts has fallen by about 30% from a decade ago, with most cuts in Europe and Asia. Compensation has stagnated as well, forcing many to reinvent themselves. Some are becoming content creators on platforms such as Substack and X.
I went through a similar metamorphosis myself: I came into journalism after the Global Financial Crisis, when my former employer Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. went bust. In so many ways, it was a good career move.