Hi, I'm not sure if anyone has started a thread on this before (if so, sorry!). One of the main difficulties when I first started developing my commercial awareness was figuring out what sources I could use, where I should start, or even what news I should even be reading. So I want to make a thread where we can all share our commercial awareness sources. There's a wealth of information out there presented in various formats, and I figured it might be useful to have a place that everyone can refer to for sources to develop their commercial awareness.
So to kick this off, here's my list of sources with a note on if they are paid or free:
Feel free to expand on this thread by adding your own personal favourites!
Edit: I thought it might be more helpful to add a brief description of each source so you have a better idea of what it is; further added more to the Wharton School YouTube section with tip on exploring further sources.
So to kick this off, here's my list of sources with a note on if they are paid or free:
- Newsletter
- FT Unhedged (paid): Critical analysis of market data and trends, and its wider implications.
- FT Due Diligence (paid): More related to corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions, and private equity.
- FT Asset Management (paid): Looks at news relating to asset management industry (eg, BlackRock).
- FT Lex (paid): Each newspiece is written by a group of columnists, explains why the news is happening.
- Bloomberg Opinion: Money Stuff (free): Analytical commentary on interesting (at times bizarre/obscure) finance stuff.
- The Daily Upside (free): Offers a summary of three key news event with a brief analysis on its macro impact.
- Finimize (paid): Similar to The Daily Upside.
- Morning Brew (free): Similar to The Daily Upside.
- The Economist Weekly Briefing (paid): Nice roundup of important news event in the previous week – good for catching up or refreshing.
- Youtube
- Patrick Boyle (free): Analysis on major news event explaining what, how and why – usually a long video.
- Wharton School (free): Guest lecturers offer insight into various industries (eg, considerations of private equity firm acquisitions) – useful for getting an understanding of how business people think (hint: look at their popular videos section).
- Pro tip: other universities/companies offer similar guests lecturers (eg, check out this one from UoV School of Law); have a scan of the suggested videos in the right hand side column in these videos and you will in no time build a collection.
- The Plain Bagel (free): Great for visualising how commercial terms work in practice (like short selling), also has videos like Boyle's and more leisurely videos like the ones critiquing TikTok finance videos.
- Khan Academy (free): Another great source for learning how economics work (like bond yields and its relative movement to price/interest rate).
- Podcast
- Numbers by Barron (free): Breaks down stories by three numbers.
- FT News Briefing (free): Sums up important news stories for each day.
- Goldman Sachs Exchanges (free): Commentary by people working at GS on a market trend.
- Morgan Stanley Thoughts on the Market (free): Similar to GS Exchanges.
- WSJ What's News (free): Basically FT News Briefing but they deliver it twice a day (US time) – once in the morning, once in the evening.
- Website
- Investopedia (free): Great for learning about commercial terms, and they also sometimes have videos to visualise the terms.
Feel free to expand on this thread by adding your own personal favourites!
Edit: I thought it might be more helpful to add a brief description of each source so you have a better idea of what it is; further added more to the Wharton School YouTube section with tip on exploring further sources.
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