Investment Banking 101
What bankers actually do all day — coverage vs. product groups, the deal lifecycle, and where junior analysts create real value.
18 min read
Investment banking sits in the middle of capital markets: between companies that need money and investors who have it. Your job as an analyst is to make that exchange happen — accurately, fast, and under pressure.
Coverage vs. product groups
Banks are organized two ways at once:
- Coverage groups own a relationship with a sector (Technology, Healthcare, FIG). They know the clients.
- Product groups own a transaction type (M&A, Leveraged Finance, ECM/DCM). They know the mechanics.
A live deal usually pairs one of each: coverage brings the client, product structures the trade.
The deal lifecycle
- Origination — pitch the idea, win the mandate.
- Execution — diligence, modeling, marketing materials.
- Closing — negotiate, sign, fund.
Analysts live in execution. The model and the deck are your instruments.
Where you add value
The edge AlphaForge teaches: pair classical rigor with AI leverage. A great analyst doesn't just build the model faster — they ask the model the right questions, then sanity-check every output by hand.