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Equity Research Analyst
Posted Sep 11, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Sep 20, 2026
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Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
Behavioral
Walk me through a time an earnings report or corporate action created a mispricing between the stock and its options. How did you spot it and what did you do with that information?
whether the candidate has real experience translating fundamental events into actionable options trades, not just theoretical knowledge
Tell me about a time you had to build a tool or model from scratch because nothing existing did what you needed. What did it do and how did traders end up using it?
hands-on tool-building capability and whether their output actually got adopted by traders, not just built
Describe a situation where your read on an event turned out to be wrong. What did you miss and how did that change how you research things now?
intellectual honesty and whether they actually learn from bad calls rather than deflect
Tell me about a case where cross-asset signals, like credit spreads or the underlying bond, told you something different than what the equity options market was pricing.
whether the candidate actually thinks across asset classes rather than staying siloed in equities
Technical
A company just announced a spin-off. Tell me what happens to the implied volatility surface and the Greeks on the parent stock's options in the days around that announcement.
depth of understanding of how corporate actions mechanically affect options pricing
Explain how a convertible bond issuance can create an arbitrage opportunity in the equity options market.
whether the candidate genuinely understands capital structure arbitrage rather than just options trading basics
How would you model the expected move in a stock heading into a dividend announcement that could go either way, and how does that affect the options market maker's quoting?
quantitative modeling skill applied specifically to event-driven scenarios traders care about
What's the difference in how you'd underwrite a merger arbitrage spread versus a dividend capture trade, in terms of what can go wrong?
breadth of actual experience across different event-driven strategy types, not just familiarity with the terms
If you had to explain to a trader in under a minute why a stock's volatility surface looks skewed heading into a binary event like an FDA decision, what would you say?
ability to distill complex options concepts quickly and clearly for a trading audience
Situational
Say you're covering earnings for forty names in a single week during a busy season. How do you decide which ones deserve deep analysis versus a quick pass?
ability to triage and prioritize under real-time pressure with limited bandwidth
You're reading a 10-Q the morning of earnings and you spot a footnote about a covenant change that the market hasn't priced in. Walk me through what you do in the next thirty minutes.
speed and judgment when parsing dense filings under real time pressure
It's 6am, there's a macro headline out of Asia that could move a basket of US names at the open, and the desk needs a read before the bell. What's your process for getting them something useful in the next fifteen minutes?
comfort operating in a 24-hour, fast-moving market coverage environment
How do you keep traders updated on a fast-moving story throughout the day without flooding them with noise?
communication judgment and understanding of what traders actually need versus what's just information
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As published by Chicago Trading Company.
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