Samuel Lourensz, MSc Financial Analysis and Fund Management 2018, Equity Research Analyst for Arete

Sam works at Arete Research - an independent equity research house specialising in technology companies. Equity research involves understanding and analysing publicly-traded companies in order to steer investment decisions. More specifically, it entails understanding the various business models, producing valuation models, speaking to management and generally trying to gain insights into a companies future prospects.

"I was always interested in businesses and what drives stock prices, and this role enables you to look at hundreds of different companies. It is impossible to read the future, and markets can ‘misbehave’ for extended periods of time, meaning there is no way to tell if you’re stock recommendation is right or wrong, and deep analysis is the only solution to gain confidence in justifying your reasoning. Arete was - and had been - interesting to me as it specialises in technology, which continues to become an increasingly important sector in the global economy. This enables me to spend my time looking at exciting -and sometimes highly controversial - companies with huge potentials."