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I was curious about this problem so I went digging around. As I understand it, financial companies often want to gather data from multiple places but consolida

by iamwil 7y ago

I was curious about this problem so I went digging around. As I understand it, financial companies often want to gather data from multiple places but consolidated in a digestible form to make financial decisions. (what kind of financial decisions, I'm unclear on, since most trading is done by computers now, but maybe this is for ETFs or OTC trades) And they're use to looking at it on PDFs and Powerpoint, because that's what people email around, and no one trusts having financial slides on the web. (why, btw? In case they leak?) And because you have many clients that want the same or similar sort of analysis on publicly traded companies, you'd ideally be able to change the analysis once, and then generate all the PDF and PPT reports they want to see. It does seem like a giant waste of time to cut and paste data from excel into powerpoint by hand. However, you should be able to export Excel data to Power Point via the Visual Basic Editor. (https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/vba-powerpoint/ https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/vba-powerpoint/) Do people not use VB to prepare this? I don't get the impression that analysts in finanace would be willing to move from Excel to a notebook. Do you get a different sense? What would a notebook have to offer to get them to switch? Analysts generally seem to love Excel, with the exception of the slow first load and crash.

airstrike 7y ago
> As I understand it, financial companies often want to gather data from multiple places but consolidated in a digestible form to make financial decisions. Yes, this is spot on. > (what kind of financial decisions, I'm unclear on, since most trading is done by computers now, but maybe this is for ETFs or OTC trades) Sales & Trading is but one part of banking. Yes, a lot of S&T is automated, but long-term strategy isn't defined by computers and neither is pitching to win new businesses. Besides S&T, there's also Restructuring (advisory and financing) and Mergers & Acquisitions. My opinion is written from the perspective of an M&A banker. I probably make ~3-4 PPT books every week on average. > And they're use to looking at it on PDFs and Powerpoint, because that's what people email around, and no one trusts having financial slides on the web. (why, btw? In case they leak?) Concerns over leaks is certainly a driver, but traceability and auditing also play a role. 3 years from now, I can certainly retrieve info that was attached to an e-mail but a link may have long expired. Also most recipients are over the age of 40 so might not like using links in general > It does seem like a giant waste of time to cut and paste data from excel into powerpoint by hand. However, you should be able to export Excel data to Power Point via the Visual Basic Editor. (https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/vba-powerpoint/ https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/vba-powerpoint/) Do people not use VB to prepare this? Certain tools like the add-ins provided by FactSet, S&P's Capital IQ and, less commonly, Bloomberg, export data into PPT with some metadata attached to it that allows you to refresh content quickly (in theory). It's all built as plugins on top of MS Office apps so your experience is not always smooth. Plus they don't solve the bigger issue of reusability > I don't get the impression that analysts in finanace would be willing to move from Excel to a notebook. Do you get a different sense? What would a notebook have to offer to get them to switch? Analysts generally seem to love Excel, with the exception of the slow first load and crash. I think Analysts like spreadsheets with very responsive UIs and countless hotkeys. Muscle memory is a major thing in this business. My vision of a solution would be one that still implements spreadsheet-like functionality but does so in pieces that connect together all the way through publishing via an integrated paradigm
- airstrike 7y ago
  And to be clear, such paradigm could sit on top of Excel. It's the tooling around it and the workflow that I think will be solved. Where the boundaries of what a new app / system lie exactly is open to debate, however
  - localhost 7y ago
    As someone with some amount of influence over the direction of Excel, I'd love to sit down with you to better understand this scenario better. Would you mind if I contacted you off-HN? My contact info is in my profile. Thx!
    - airstrike 7y ago
      Sure! Thanks for reaching out, it will be an absolute pleasure to discuss this further. I'll ping you from my work e-mail

by iamwil 7y ago

airstrike 7y ago

> As I understand it, financial companies often want to gather data from multiple places but consolidated in a digestible form to make financial decisions. Yes, this is spot on. > (what kind of financial decisions, I'm unclear on, since most trading is done by computers now, but maybe this is for ETFs or OTC trades) Sales & Trading is but one part of banking. Yes, a lot of S&T is automated, but long-term strategy isn't defined by computers and neither is pitching to win new businesses. Besides S&T, there's also Restructuring (advisory and financing) and Mergers & Acquisitions. My opinion is written from the perspective of an M&A banker. I probably make ~3-4 PPT books every week on average. > And they're use to looking at it on PDFs and Powerpoint, because that's what people email around, and no one trusts having financial slides on the web. (why, btw? In case they leak?) Concerns over leaks is certainly a driver, but traceability and auditing also play a role. 3 years from now, I can certainly retrieve info that was attached to an e-mail but a link may have long expired. Also most recipients are over the age of 40 so might not like using links in general > It does seem like a giant waste of time to cut and paste data from excel into powerpoint by hand. However, you should be able to export Excel data to Power Point via the Visual Basic Editor. (https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/vba-powerpoint/ https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/vba-powerpoint/) Do people not use VB to prepare this? Certain tools like the add-ins provided by FactSet, S&P's Capital IQ and, less commonly, Bloomberg, export data into PPT with some metadata attached to it that allows you to refresh content quickly (in theory). It's all built as plugins on top of MS Office apps so your experience is not always smooth. Plus they don't solve the bigger issue of reusability > I don't get the impression that analysts in finanace would be willing to move from Excel to a notebook. Do you get a different sense? What would a notebook have to offer to get them to switch? Analysts generally seem to love Excel, with the exception of the slow first load and crash. I think Analysts like spreadsheets with very responsive UIs and countless hotkeys. Muscle memory is a major thing in this business. My vision of a solution would be one that still implements spreadsheet-like functionality but does so in pieces that connect together all the way through publishing via an integrated paradigm

airstrike 7y ago
And to be clear, such paradigm could sit on top of Excel. It's the tooling around it and the workflow that I think will be solved. Where the boundaries of what a new app / system lie exactly is open to debate, however
- localhost 7y ago
  As someone with some amount of influence over the direction of Excel, I'd love to sit down with you to better understand this scenario better. Would you mind if I contacted you off-HN? My contact info is in my profile. Thx!
  - airstrike 7y ago
    Sure! Thanks for reaching out, it will be an absolute pleasure to discuss this further. I'll ping you from my work e-mail