Taking in December in Boston, MA. Just signed up so I have some studying to do.
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Anyone here pass Level I of the CFA Exam?
- Thread starter bwolinsky
- Start date
I am interested in pursuing CFA -- read somewhere it is "poor man's MBA." Not to be critical -- I just finished my MBA/Finance at a "respectable" institution (not Ivy League).
Anyone want to comment on the difference between CFA and MBA? Particularly in how the job market views it?
Anyone want to comment on the difference between CFA and MBA? Particularly in how the job market views it?
Quote from big_cabrito:
I am interested in pursuing CFA -- read somewhere it is "poor man's MBA." Not to be critical -- I just finished my MBA/Finance at a "respectable" institution (not Ivy League).
Anyone want to comment on the difference between CFA and MBA? Particularly in how the job market views it?
I'll put it to you like this the way Doug Van Eaton did. Say I'm hiring for a job. There's a few MBA's, but the BS CFA goes straight to the top of the pile. That's how it works. MS in Finance is on par with obtaining a CFA charter. You'd also know it as Quantitative Finance at Ivy League Colleges.
Quote from duffman:
Finished this thing last year. Hold charter now. Walked out half way through the afternoon-you either know the answer on the mult choice or you don't. Did get a bump at work for passing it. So glad to be done with it.
That's how I felt about both sessions.
I'll tell a story to that. One of the candidates had broke his leg and was on pain medicine in Dec 07's test and was refunded by the CFA institute as he was high on morphine and pain killers and unable to really study.
He claimed all he did was read the CFAI materials, but I'll be the first to tell him he's not going to pass. He was getting his MBA from UMKC. I think he stayed the whole first session, but walked out in a half hour in the second. Want to lay bets on whether he passed?
Quote from Marco911:
I finished L3 a few years ago and I'm thinking of quitting my job working in the industry.
The CFA does not help you to be a day trader for profits although it can prepare you for a lot of typical investment strategies.
I've taken many different licensing tests and exams and the CFA L1 and L2 exams were extremely difficult.
L3 Isn't as bad because there is an open ended portion plus by the time you get to L3 you should have an idea of what you're doing.
While you can get a decent paying job as a portfolio manager I ended up making more money as a mutual fund wholesaler.
I've been paper trading for 6 months and started doing the real thing for 3 months.
I am making a consistent $3,000-$5,000 daily so there is no appeal for me to continue working if I can be making a huge sum of money trading.
I'm all too aware of the pitfalls that can catch out the amateurs and I myself am worried.
I essentially scalp trade and use a 5-1 margin.
Anyways, getting side tracked. The CFA is a great course if you enjoy mental gymnastics. It's also a great tool if you want to be a portfolio manager.
If you want to do anything else, I think it's probably the biggest waste of time you will ever spend.
Yeah, I'm on that portfolio manager track for sure. I just got a call from someone who saw me on gobig.com asking me if I'd be interested in managing a hedge fund of $150 million. I bet you know what my answer is.
On another note. I guess I'm at 4:1 margin. I don't have enough capital to make $5k per day. That would be an above average trade for me. Actually it might be accessible, but I only take position trades for a few days a couple times per month.
Here's one of the funniest things that I find. A manager like Ken Heebner of CGM Focus, or even Warren Buffet has huge drawdowns sometimes. If I was willing to risk 35% DD's, I bet I could triple money every year. Obviously that's not my goal. Just look at a chart of CGM Focus, you'll see his DD's are actually worse than some of the systems in chartscript rankings at wl4.wealth-lab.com. Even a simple buy on the dip strategy has less risk and more return than his fund. This is an irony to me.
Quote from demoship:
For those of you that are charterholders:
What kind of bump did you get when you received your charter? Did you get a bump when you passed each level as well, or only after you got awarded your charter?
Actuaries get a bump, but that really doesn't apply for the CFA charter. It's an all or nothing deal, I think.
Quote from bwolinsky:
Actuaries get a bump, but that really doesn't apply for the CFA charter. It's an all or nothing deal, I think.
Well, I figured that if you're in the process of obtaining your charter and have passed one or more exams and are registered for the next, that it would be worth something.
Of course, if you drop out then whatever you did so far is worthless.
Quote from demoship:
Well, I figured that if you're in the process of obtaining your charter and have passed one or more exams and are registered for the next, that it would be worth something.
Of course, if you drop out then whatever you did so far is worthless.
I'm told it will last for about 10 years, then you'll have to start over if you never finish past Level I.