The Complete Investment Banking Course 2026

Explore the historical background of the investment banking industry, where brand name, tradition, and reputation attract top clients, and examine government regulation, market dynamics, and interview topics shaping services.

Investment banks emerged in 19th-century America to underwrite securities, bridging investors and government debt while providing reputation and pricing expertise that helped issuers and investors align incentives.

Commercial banks accept deposits and issue mortgages, earning from the spread between interest paid and charged. Investment banks pursue large underwriting and advisory deals, earning fees and commissions.

Explore why universal banks—combining commercial and investment services—create synergies and a one-stop shop, while regulators fear conflicts of interest and systemic risk.

Explore intrinsic conflicts of interest in investment banking and how Chinese walls protect client information across trading, asset management, underwriting, and advisory services.

Explore the seven historical M&A waves shaping mergers and acquisitions, from horizontal and vertical integration to hostile takeovers, private equity, and globalization across decades.

Reveal three landmark ipos— Ford in 1956, Alibaba in 2014, and Saudi Aramco in 2020—showing how relationship banking, valuation, and market conditions shaped historic listings.

Explore the four main investment banking activities: equity and debt capital markets, underwriting and advisory services, including M&A, restructuring, and asset management, with IPOs, seasoned offerings, bonds, and loan syndications.

Explore advisory services in mergers and acquisitions and debt restructuring, including buyer and seller roles, consideration types, targets, valuations, and the importance of synergies and due diligence.

Discover how trading and brokerage drive bank profits through proprietary trading and client markup, liquidity provision, and market making in equities, fixed income, and derivatives.

Asset management helps clients reach financial goals through investment management and advice. Asset managers optimize portfolios by investing across stocks, bonds, real estate, and private equity while managing risk.

Discover how global investment banks differ from boutique advisory firms, outlining how size, core competencies, and strategy drive capital markets, underwriting, mergers and acquisitions advisory, and wholesale services.

Compare transaction banking's high-volume, standardised products with relationship banking's advisory services that nurture long-term client partnerships. See how time investment and insights create client value and sustain boutique advisory firms.

Recommend book, The Accidental Investment Banker, that offers an inside look from a former Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley banker, detailing the ascent from associate and what investment bankers do.

Explore why companies go public to raise capital, establish market value, and use stock as acquisition currency, while boosting credibility, liquidity for employees, and founders' exit options.

Explore the three IPO investors: retail, institutional, and hedge funds, and how growth potential, liquidity, and valuation shape allocation, after market stability, and bankers' preferences.

Explore IPO price setting using DCF and multiples valuation to set a discounted price range, guided by book building and investor feedback for post-listing trading.

Explore ipo pricing factors, including dcf valuation, comps, market sentiment, and ownership goals, and how retail versus institutional investors and the book building roadshow shape the price based on demand.

Learn how initial public offering share allocation after book building balances price, investor demand, timing, and long-term credibility to maximize liquidity and align ownership.

Gain insight into the two-phase IPO timetable, from pre-launch due diligence and advisor selection to execution, roadshows, prospectus, and final listing.

Learn how the ipo syndicate operates with global coordinators, bookrunners, and co-lead managers, and understand the 60/20/20 fee split and typical ranges from 1.5% to 7%.

Demystifies ipo fee distribution with a practical $150 million issue, calculating management, underwriting, and selling fees across Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan in the syndicate.

Understand post-IPO stabilization and how banks manage early share price stability by using short and long positions, borrowing shares, and applying greenshoe and overallotment concepts.

Explore how investment banks stabilize post-ipo trading using overallotment and the greenshoe call option to protect prices and balance supply.

Explore seasoned equity offerings and private placements as alternative methods to raise capital, with lower seo commissions, prepped filings, and quicker access for institutional investors.

Examine Facebook's ipo as a case study in equity capital markets, analyzing growth, profitability, valuation, book building, ipo price per share, and post-ipo performance.

Explore the four types of bonds: fixed rate, floating rate, equity related, and asset backed securities, and learn how bond financing compares to bank loans for different company sizes.

Bonds offer cheaper pricing than bank loans due to lower interest paid to investors. They also require scale to attract multiple investors.

Learn the end-to-end mechanics of a bond offering, from hiring a bookrunner and forming a syndicate to credit rating, provisional pricing, book building, underwriting, and stabilization.

Explore junk bonds, or high yield bonds, with high coupons and higher default risk from lower-rated borrowers. Issuance rises when alternatives are scarce and investor appetite signals the cycle.

Securitization packages loans into an SPV, repackages assets, and resells them to investors, helping banks improve capital adequacy by reducing risk weighted assets and enabling continued lending.

Show how securitization works using a bank example: package credit card receivables into asset-backed securities, obtain a credit rating, and free capital to improve capital to risk-weighted assets.

Learn how syndicated loans pool banks to fund large borrowers, diversify portfolios, and earn commissions via the lead arranger, underwriting, and selling efforts.

Learn how project finance uses a non-recourse structure through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to fund a project, governed by covenants and backed by project cash flows and assets.

Explore why mergers and acquisitions create value through synergies, cost efficiencies, and strategic know-how, illustrated by Take two's Zynga deal and defensive M&A in gaming.

Explore how M&A deals align with a company’s lifecycle—startup, growth, maturity, and decline—covering bolt-on acquisitions, acquisitions of growth firms, mergers of equals, leveraged buyouts, and asset deals.

Identify the three M&A processes—private transaction, full-scale auction, and listed-firm acquisition—and explain how one or two bidders, 3 to 5 bidders, and disclosure shape premiums.

Explore the private M&A process, from confidentiality agreements and process letters to due diligence, data rooms, and post-due-diligence negotiations on price and earnouts.

Explain how a sell-side M&A auction orchestrates competitive bidding through an investment bank, vendor due diligence with a Big Four, teasers, an information memorandum, and binding bids.

Acquiring a listed firm hinges on board and CEO negotiations, determining friendly or hostile takeovers. Tender offers with an acquisition premium grant control, with due diligence, confidentiality, and squeeze-outs.

Learn to price target companies in mergers and acquisitions using DCF valuation, trading and transaction multiples, and LBO analysis, triangulating enterprise value and equity value, and assessing acquisition premiums.

Explore cash, stock, and earnout payment options in M&A deals, including combinations of cash and stock and earnouts that bridge valuation gaps.

Distinguish corporate and financial bidders in M&A by highlighting synergies and long-term integration for corporate buyers versus ROI focus, board monitoring, and exit horizons for financial buyers.

Explore why and when restructuring services help distressed companies, outlining cash constraints, triggers like obsolescence, decline, poor decisions, lack of innovation, and the risk–reward balance between turnaround and liquidation.

Restructuring starts with the balance sheet, focusing on assets and equity through asset restructuring. It may sell non-core assets, trim capex and advertising costs, and negotiate debt restructuring with creditors.

Analyze how a company's liabilities can be restructured, progressing from low-impact to high-impact scenarios. Build a pyramid of asset-side restructuring tactics and evaluate when restructuring is a viable alternative.

Explore the trading and brokerage division, including market making and proprietary positions across forex, fixed income, equities, and commodities, and how banks monetize volatility and client brokerage needs.

Explore the main categories of traded securities, from blue-chip and mid and small-cap equities to government and corporate bonds, and derivatives like forwards, futures, options, swaps, and CDS.

Differentiate proprietary trading from principal investments as banks trade securities in the bank's account and invest in assets like private equity and real estate securitizations, not exchange traded.

Examine how algorithmic trading, powered by AI and machine learning, delivers speed, accuracy, and cost efficiency in liquid markets, and how banks adapt with data and predictive models.

Explains how investment banks run asset management arms that tailor portfolios to clients' needs and risk profiles, charging management and incentive fees while offering private wealth services.

Analyze the risk-return tradeoffs among open-end funds, real estate funds, private equity, hedge funds, and alternative assets, and explain how asset managers tailor allocations to client goals and investment horizon.

Private equity funds acquire private companies to create value through involvement and exit in 5–10 years; they use limited partnerships or closed-end funds with management fee and carried interest.