How do I become an Investment Banker?

You need to know the basics of actuarial mathematics, because you need to know that to read any prospectus on an investment you want to use.

Everyone warns you that on any investment, you need to read a prospectus before you invest or send money because you will know how much value you could lose if the market goes up or down…especially if you invest in stocks or go into the stock market….and you know how much risk that is involved in an investment.

Let the Enron debacle be a big lesson to you…..the huge pension losses the employees had faced will be a caveat if you want to invest in more than just CDs or money market funds.

Any investment you make will have a certain amount of….you guess it….risk.

Right now, best to invest in any of the oil stocks….because the price of oil is very, very high now. Also invest in gold….plenty of gold. Also, invest in milk and break commodities, because prices are still high now.

Don’t invest in the DJIA, or DOW, or NASDAQ for now…..because the recession is here. Wait until the recession ends before investing in the Dow.

And also…..to be a better investment banker….

You need to easily read charts, like those you had seen in economics class…..

You need to know at least 1,000 stock symbols, and probably 500 more (treat it like Chinese characters; e.g., XRX is Xerox), and…..

You need your trusty science calculator built especially for
simple and compound interest problems…and this will be important at tax time when you are thinking about investing to reduce liability in your income taxes……..

Good luck, and happy investing……
References :

The primary function of an investment bank is buying and selling products both on behalf of the bank’s clients and also for the bank itself. Banks undertake risk through proprietary trading, done by a special set of traders who do not interface with clients and through Principal Risk, risk undertaken by a trader after he buys or sells a product to a client and does not hedge his total exposure. Banks seek to maximize profitability for a given amount of risk on their balance sheet.
Investment Banking is the traditional aspect of investment banks which involves helping customers raise funds in the Capital Markets and advising on mergers and acquisitions. When speaking of jobs on "Wall St." people are referring to the Investment Banking jobs. These jobs tend to be the most competitive and hardest to land. Investment banking may involve subscribing investors to a security issuance, coordinating with bidders, or negotiating with a merger target. Other terms for the Investment Banking Division include Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) and Corporate Finance. The Investment Banking Division (commonly referred to as IBD) is generally divided into industry coverage and product coverage groups. Industry coverage groups focus on a specific industry such as Healthcare or Technology, and maintain relationships with corporations within the industry to bring in business for the bank. Product coverage groups focus on financial products, such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Financial Sponsors, and Leveraged Finance.
References :
Morgan Stanley

The term "Investment Banker" is extremely broad nowadays, however I would assume you mean obtain a job as a sell-side analyst. If you’re asking this question, you probably did not attend a "target" school nor have personal contacts within the industry. While bulge bracket banks do hire from non targets (if you attended a state school forget about it), with the state the market is in now – probably not.

Your best bet if you want to get into banking is to get a MBA from a target school (Wharton, HBS, Stern, etc…).

Now if sell-side analysis is not what you want to do, the answer may be entirely different. And no, your average analyst will not need an understanding of actuarial science.

To be honest, most semi-intelligent people off the street could do what a sell side analyst does. But most bulge brackets maintain the status quo of hiring from the "targets".

EDIT:

The sequence of posts is somewhat ironic, I don’t believe the first poster really has an understanding of what banking is. Maybe the second post was intentional?
References :