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10 Free Investment Banking Coaching Courses

You don't need to spend $5,000 to break into investment banking. The internet has more free IB prep content than any sophomore can finish in a semester. Most of it comes from the same people who built the paid platforms.


The candidates who break in from non-target schools almost always built their foundation on this free stack before paying for anything.


Every resource on this list is genuinely free. No "free trial that auto-charges in 7 days." No "free PDF after you give us your phone number for a sales call."


How should I sequence these?

Start with one technical foundation (Damodaran or the RedBook), one networking and recruiting source (M&I), and one tactical drill site (Macabacus). Finish those three before adding anything else. The candidates who flame out on free resources opened 12 tabs and finished none.


The standard reference for IB recruiting strategy, with hundreds of free articles covering every major bank, every coverage group, and every recruiting region.

  • Website: mergersandinquisitions.com

  • Format: Long-form blog

  • Cost: Free

  • Best for: Recruiting strategy, story crafting, firm-specific guides

Concrete takeaway: Read the IB Recruiting Guide and the group-specific articles for the firms you're targeting. Skip articles dated before 2021.


A ~400-page free PDF that distills Wall Street Prep's paid curriculum and is used as the internal training reference at multiple bulge brackets.

  • Website: Linked above. Hosted PDF

  • Format: PDF covering accounting, modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO

  • Cost: Free

  • Best for: Pre-interview technical drilling

Concrete takeaway: Read it cover to cover and drill the exercises. Candidates who finish the RedBook pass technical interviews at materially higher rates than candidates who download it and never open it.


The most cited valuation professor on earth has put his entire NYU teaching catalogue on his personal site for free, including the Excel templates buy-side analysts actually use.

  • Website: pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar

  • Format: Free lecture videos, valuation spreadsheets, decades of teaching materials

  • Cost: Free

  • Best for: DCF intuition, terminal value, valuation under uncertainty

Concrete takeaway: Use Damodaran for valuation depth. The academic pace is slower than YouTube, but you'll leave with the intuition no $700 course will give you.


Structured free intro courses on accounting, Excel, and financial modeling fundamentals, useful for career switchers and international candidates without a finance program at their school.

Concrete takeaway: The certifications are paid; the underlying content is free. Use it to build the floor, then move to Damodaran or BIWS for depth.


The Excel productivity standard at every bulge bracket has a free tier that teaches the shortcut stack BB analysts spend their first month learning.

  • Website: macabacus.com

  • Format: Excel productivity add-in plus free training library

  • Cost: Free tier with limited features

  • Best for: Excel shortcuts and the productivity workflow at every bulge bracket

Concrete takeaway: Install the free tier this weekend. It closes the gap between "I can use Excel" and "I can write Excel the way a Goldman analyst writes it."


Two decades of finance recruiting discussion with real intel on every firm, every group, and every coverage area, free to read.

  • Website: wallstreetoasis.com/forum

  • Format: Public Q&A forum

  • Cost: Free to read

  • Best for: Group reputation, comp data, recruiting timelines

Concrete takeaway: Search any firm before networking with someone there. The first three threads will tell you more than any sponsored content ever will.


The most accessible finance education on the internet, free, and the right starting point if you've never opened an income statement.

Concrete takeaway: Finish the accounting and finance modules before you open Damodaran or the RedBook. The pace is slow; that's the point.


A reference library for every finance term and concept, free, and best used the way a coder uses Stack Overflow rather than as a curriculum.

  • Website: investopedia.com

  • Format: Free reference articles

  • Cost: Free

  • Best for: Fast definitional reference

Concrete takeaway: Bookmark it. Search a term when you need it. Don't try to read it linearly; that's not what it's built for.


Goldman publishes its internal Talks at GS interviews with CEOs, academics, and industry leaders for free, giving you a window into how the firm's senior partners think.

Concrete takeaway: Bring one Talks at GS interview into a Goldman networking call. The analyst will notice you've done work no other candidate did.


JPMorgan's strategist research catalogue (the same research the firm sells to its clients) is free on the public site, paired with the Quest for the Best YouTube series.

  • Website: jpmorgan.com/insights

  • Format: Free strategist research and YouTube series

  • Cost: Free

  • Best for: Pre-interview firm research, macro perspective

Concrete takeaway: Read JPM's most recent macro outlook before a JPM interview. Walk in with a one-line view on the strategist's read.


What about the free resources not on this list?

A few worth addressing directly.


Bloomberg Terminal at your school's library is excellent if you have access. The Bloomberg Market Concepts certification is free for students and recognized at every bank.


Coursera and edX free audits work for the fundamentals. The Wharton Intro to Corporate Finance MOOC is free to audit; the certification is paid.


YouTube generalist channels have good content but enormous quality variance and rotate fast. Anchor your prep on the structured resources above and use YouTube only for spot-clarification.


What to do this week

Open three tabs. Close the other 17. Finish those three before paying for anything else.

The free stack is enough to get most candidates into a first-round interview at a bulge bracket. What you pay for after that is the gap between knowing the material and applying it under pressure.


Start with the RedBook, M&I, and Damodaran. Come back to this list when you've finished those three.


Stephen Turban is the co-founder of Wall Street Guide and Lumiere Education. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College in Statistics, worked as an Business Analytics Fellow at McKinsey & Company. He founded WSG to give ambitious students the same insider access to finance and consulting recruiting that top-school students take for granted.

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