Wall Street, Up Close and Full Summer

The Analyst Exchange, a financial modeling training program, is launching a training program and internship program that prepares participants for a career in finance.

Recent college graduates, professionals and college students will be training at New York City firms this summer.

The three-week, intensive training program includes accounting, consolidated financial statements, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, valuation and introduction into the analysis of financial markets. The four-week internship is guaranteed at a private equity firm, venture capital fund, boutique investment bank or hedge fund. The skills taught in the training program will be honed as they work on real-world business transactions.

Courses are taught by Wall Street professionals. Trainers have had "big five" firm experience and instruct not from an academic perspective, but as if the trainee is the analyst on the job.

The experience will be enhanced with trips to a trading floor and other optional cultural experiences organized on evenings and weekends. Participants will receive insider’s views of what New York City has to offer as a place to live and work.

The internships include a private equity firm that was founded in 1991 and is a $2.7 billion alternative investment group that manages a diverse set of investment vehicles focused on emergency markets across the world. A hedge fund that offers internships manages an investment fund that specializes in the healthcare and life sciences sector.

The next training and internship program begins January 2010. Applicants can send resumes to advantage@theanalystexchange.com.

Content Powers "Vertical Communities"

Oh look. Look, look, look.

Match the search engine optimization with great investment news content. Add solid business partners and time-tested news feeds. Then add consistent, insightful commentary on company information. All the time.

The blogosphere is merging with Wall Street powerhouses and media leaders who see and act on the explosive potential of information in real time. The potential of online news matched with people's interests is a frontier now being settled.

And while some of the traditional businesses scramble to stay afloat in rapidly changing environment, online businesses are being nurtured and fed to fuel growth.

Some get it. Others move slowly and miss opportunity. See the power of a platform?

For a listing of frontline investors and channels of content distribution, look at the people partnering with a company called "Stocktwits." (To really explore, readers will need to have a Twitter account first.)

An excerpt:

"We are also working on deals with distribution partners who are eager to bring the Stocktwits commentary into their feeds. One such partner is Bloomberg. We are working with them to create a filtered feed of high-value Stocktwits commentary, that can be incorporated into their already large and growing pipe of alternative content such as online news, blogs other non-traditional sources. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Bloomberg is getting it, and Stocktwits can be part of their answer. Why? Real Investors. Real Ideas. Real Time.

"Those who are insightful, sharp and decisive command large readership. And this is the way it should be. We've only just seen the tip of the iceberg of what the Stocktwits community can and will become. But the power of the platform is clear."