The Wall Street Skinny

Send us Fan Mail Worried AI will take your Investment Banking job? There's no avoiding AI these days, so how do you understand it, use it to your advantage, and outperform it in Investment Banking and high finance roles? We asked our community for their toughest questions about the future of finance careers in the age of AI, and sat down for 30 minutes with former Blackhawk helicopter pilot and 30...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Kristen and Jen dive straight into the finance headlines with a M&A story: Perplexity, an AI startup valued at $18 billion, has made a $34 billion all-cash bid for Google Chrome. Kristen unpacks why this is virtually unprecedented in dealmaking, explaining how the size mismatch, lack of financing capacity, and Chrome’s not-for-sale status make the offer so unusual. They...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Wall Street Skinny, Kristen and Jen sit down with Professor Emily Oster, a Harvard-educated economist with a PhD and a faculty position at Brown University where her studies focus on approaches to finding causality in observational data, as well as the best-selling author of "Expecting Better", "Crib Sheet", and "The Family Firm". Oster is known for her data...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the unofficial companion podcast to HBO Max's hit show, Industry, hosts Jen and Kristen dive deep into the financial intricacies and dramatic moments of Season 3, Episode 2 titled 'Smoke and Mirrors.'  They kick off the discussion by analyzing the thematic significance of 'Smoke and Mirrors,' tying it to both magic tricks and the episode's plot centered around d...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Skinny on Wall Street, Kristen and Jen are back in full swing with a jam-packed episode covering some of the biggest stories in markets and finance. They kick things off by diving deep into the highly anticipated Figma IPO, which just priced and shocked the market with an incredible first-day reaction. They break down why the IPO was such a blockbuster, how it com...

Send us Fan Mail In this week’s episode of The Skinny on Wall Street, Kristen and Jen break down the latest wave of meme stock mania and what it reveals about market sentiment. They dive into Opendoor and other “DORK” stocks (Krispy Kreme, Opendoor, Kohl’s, etc.), explaining how short squeezes and retail investor hype have driven massive price swings despite weak fundamentals. The conversation als...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Skinny On, Kristen and Jen power through illness, time zone chaos, and toddler wrangling to bring you a jam-packed episode to break down two major consumer deals: Ferrero’s $3.1B offer for Kellogg and the possible Heinz Kraft breakup. They explain why these legacy food brand split up, the logic behind reverse mergers and spin offs, and how wellness trends are shap...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Wall Street Skinny, we're back with fan-favorite guest Justin Resnick, Managing Director at Evercore, for a deep dive into the evolving world of private equity secondaries. This follow-on to our original “Secondaries 101” episode goes beyond the basics to explore how LP- and GP-led transactions are shaping today's deal landscape. With volatility still roilin...

Send us Fan Mail In this long-awaited episode of The Wall Street Skinny, we’re breaking down Real Estate Private Equity with Lauren Hochfelder, Managing Director and Co-CEO of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing. If you’ve ever wondered what real estate investing looks like at the institutional level — beyond flipping houses or buying rental properties — this is your 101 primer.  We dive into the...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we delve into the intricate world of finance depicted in the Season 3 premiere, "Il Mattino Ha L’Oro in Bocca" breaking down the complexities behind the IPO process, how pricing works and setting "price talk", the IPO discount and more. We also touch on some key corporate finance concepts including leverage ratios, net debt, and finally touch on the power and elect...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we sit down with Sonia Gupta, Partner and Co-Head of Biotech Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs. Sonia walks us through her unique journey—from studying public health at Brown, to working in healthcare consulting, to getting her MBA at MIT, and ultimately climbing the ranks at Goldman to become a senior leader advising some of the most innovative biotech companie...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we break down the finance behind the Industry Season 2 finale—and without exaggerating, this might be our favorite episode yet. There was so much to dig into, starting with the trade that the whole season built toward: Jesse Bloom’s long Rican / short FastAid position. Because the episode references the legendary trade where “Soros broke the Bank of England” in 19...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we sit down with Olga Gorodetsky, a Director in Capital Markets at Fannie Mae, for an in-depth conversation about the role of Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) in the U.S. housing finance system. Olga walks us through the history and mission of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, explaining how these institutions provide liquidity and stability to the mortgage marke...

Send us Fan Mail Wondering if you need the CFA to break into banking? Curious what the SIE is, or whether a CPA helps you land a role in private equity? You're not alone—exam questions are by far the most common DMs we get. So in this episode, we finally break it all down. We’re joined by Joyce Schnur, Senior VP at Kaplan, who walks us through the differences between licensing (SIE, Series 7, 63,...

Send us Fan Mail We’re back and breaking down Season 2, Episode 7 of Industry: “Lone Wolf and Cub.” This one is dense with real finance concepts—starting with Harper, Eric, and Rishi's attempt to “hit a bid away” and pitch themselves as a ready-made desk to rival firms. We get into how traders actually get paid, why comp guarantees are risky, and what it means to bring “client color” as your lever...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Wall Street Skinny, we sit down with Scott Bok, Chairman and former CEO of Greenhill & Co. and author of Surviving Wall Street: A Tale of Triumph, Tragedy and Timing. Scott shares stories from his remarkable career journey—from big law at Wachtell Lipton to investment banking at Morgan Stanley, to ultimately leading one of the most respected elite boutiques...

Send us Fan Mail We’re thrilled to welcome Congressman Seth Magaziner — a longtime friend from our high school and college days — for a conversation about the intersection of finance, policy, and politics. We break down the proposed tax bill currently moving through Congress, the state of U.S. debt and deficits, and insider trading laws for elected officials, and Seth’s background in finance and p...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Wall Street Skinny, Kristen and Jen kick announce the launch of their long-awaited M&A course, part of their dynamic, story-driven finance curriculum. They discuss how the course, two years in the making, blends real-world technicals with the drama of HBO’s Succession, making complex M&A concepts like accretion/dilution, deferred taxes, and tax structuring b...

Send us Fan Mail This week we start off talking about what's happening in the markets: the latest GDP print—and why the headline number being down isn’t quite as simple as it sounds. We unpack the mechanics behind the contraction, including how tariff-fueled inventory surges and net import dynamics played a role. We also dive into real-time supply chain stress, from container ships skipping ports...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Wall Street Skinny, we explore the escalating tension between former President Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell, how markets reacted, and what it reveals about the importance of central bank independence. Jen also breaks down "Operation Twist"—a lesser-known but powerful Fed tool—and explains how it differs from traditional rate cuts or quantitative easing....

Send us Fan Mail This week, we break down the tension between Jerome Powell and Donald Trump—and what it actually means for monetary policy. If you listened to Powell’s latest remarks at the Economic Club of Chicago, you may not have thought much of it, but anyone knows how to decode the Fed’s deliberately vague words noticed unmistakably hawkish tone. We explain how to read between the lines of F...

Send us Fan Mail There has been some speculation that the reason for "chaos in the bond markets" isn't loss of confidence in the US but rather the result of an unwind in "the basis trade" leading hedge funds to blow up and causing yield spreads to widen. To explore this theory we need to get super granular.  We go deep into the relationship between cash bonds, futures, and interest rate swaps—and...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Wall Street Skinny, we’re diving headfirst into one of the most volatile weeks in recent memory—and we brought backup. After a whiplash-inducing reversal in the bond and equity markets, Jen and Kristen break down how the tariff announcements are rippling through rates, treasury auctions, and investor sentiment. From the Fed’s shrinking balance sheet to the rising...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Wall Street Skinny, we dive headfirst into the chaos that’s been roiling the markets—and specifically why what's happening in the bond market has investors spooked. Treasury auctions, bond yields, the dollar, and gold are all flashing red, and we break down exactly why. Kristen turns the mic to Jen, who spent nearly a decade on the interest rates desk at Morgan St...

Send us Fan Mail Markets are in chaos, which is why on this week’s episode Kristen and Jen ditch the interviews to break down what the hell is happening in markets right now. From tariffs to the dollar and everything in between, we’re unpacking the massive moves in equities, the near-trigger of the circuit breaker, and what April 2nd — aka "Liberation Day" — really means. We dive deep into the eco...