Somehow I can’t help but think there’s a big supply and demand imbalance. The world of finance keeps shrinking while the number of CFA charters given out keeps growing faster and faster..
The number was 95,000 just a short while ago…
http://www.cfainstitute.org/about/Pages/facts_and_statistics.aspx
They should make L2 harder.. Haha jk don’t flame me L1 / 2 peeps
Charterholders now comprise 0.0015% of the world’s population!!!!
You can fondle the cube, but it will not respond.
Stop diluting my Chahta!!
KISS MY CONVERSE.
its true though, something needs to be done. It will lose any credebility otherwise.
Who knows though, there could be a call for a mass genocide of CFA’s due to the GFC soon.
It already has pretty much no credibility for high end jobs. Don’t flame me, it’s true.
Ability to make money > top MBA > CFA > BBA / BS from a good school > 2nd tier MBA > everything else
“I lost my wife to a margin call. Wives get mad when you come home and say, ‘Sweetheart, I lost the house today.’” - Dennis Gartman on trading mistakes
There are over 130,000 chartered accountants, and thats just in the UK body. So include other countries and there are also a crapload of these guys.
The CFA institute needs to make some other cash cow designations, and keep CFA more exclusive.
I don’t think it will lose credibility, but what may end up happening is that because so many people are in the program, it will become almost a prerequisite for those that don’t have a stellar MBA or connections to get in.
That’s another reason why it’s smart to just get it over with quickly, I think pass rates will be lowered or the charter will be made more difficult to get in some way
Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and greatest weakness.
You could reduce the number of people passing the exam if you were required to have 5 years of post college work experience before you can sit for level I. Also you must have 1 year between level I and II and 1 year between II and III. While the material is tough, it is far easier to set aside study time when you are in college or right out of college. Once you are in your late 20’s and early 30’s things like a spouse and kids make it a much larger sacrifice (and hence difficult) to pass. I would love to see the drop out rates regresed aganst candidate age.
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is 100k active Charterholders.. or number of Charters awarded since inception?
Should be active. Obviously if you don’t pay your yearly fee or sign the yearly conduct form, you’re not considered a CFA charterholder
Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and greatest weakness.
This sounds like a prelude to ethnic cleansing. I need to figure out which subfaction of CFA’s have the upper hand. Is it the CFA+MBA folks? or the CFA+IT folks? or the CFA+ER people?
Cities teem with evil and decay, let’s give it a good shake and see what falls out!!
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i dont see this as a problem.. alot of the older people with the charter (40s-60s year olds) arent in the market for the same jobs as a hungry 30 something.. and not willing to work 60+hours a week.
sure there is a huge concentration of “CFAs” in NYC/London.. but if you could really count the number of job seekers in any random financial hub.. its still rare. i assume 90% of charterholders are already employeed and not actively sending resumes.
That should be easy. The subgroup with the upper hand should be CFA +work experience
Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and greatest weakness.
Those that want to limit the number of charterholders are insecure. Have more confidence in yourself.
It reminds me of a singles party I attended recently. I believe the ratio was 1.5 men for every woman. Of course, those that complained about the ratio before even attending the party didn’t hook up at the party. Those that didn’t give a damn about the ratio did well.
Actually I believe it’s since inception. I’d hate to have the same number of some asshole that dropped out two years ago.
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^^
yep.. this makes more sense.. (100k since inception)
if you break it down i would bet there is a fraction of people that get awarded the Charter and never renew the membership after the first couple of years (stop using the designation).. alot of people move on to other careers. whatever..
still curious as to how many people are using the CFA designation right now.. and only a very small fraction of that is actively looking for a job..
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Respect.
I seem to recall that when I was at the CFAI conference in Vancouver a few years back, they were saying that they’d just given out the 120,000th charter. I was trying to reconcile that with the fact that there were less than 100,000 active charterholders at the time (something like 95k) and I came to the conclusion that the missing 25k must be inactive, retired, or had died since receiving the charter.
I don’t know what the actual number is, though.
You want a quote? Haven’t I written enough already???
^ This makes a lot more sense to me. It’s not logical to include all historical given charters into the charterholders list especially how the Institute is so uptight on the definition
Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and greatest weakness.
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Start flocking to the CAIA. There’s only about 5k of us.
I’m kinda interested in CAIA’s materials, but I just don’t want to sit for (or pay for) more tests…
You want a quote? Haven’t I written enough already???
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Bchad, it’s a growing designation. If you took it, you could probably jump on the board of directors guiding the designation’s vision.
It’s a pretty fun exam. But it is expensive.
Look closely. This is 100,000 members, “more than 87% of whom are charterholders.” So one of the passing level III candidates this year will probably be the 100,000th charterholder. Right?
Meh, I don’t know if it means much, but it means something.
I had a bunch of resumes on my desk this morning. A bunch of them had a CFA in progress (violation to even say it that way I’m sure). But I take note of it, it means they are serious about finance, let’s face it, it’s a painful process. Lvl3 candidate means something to me, one guy had that. But I know lots of CFAs who are idiots, so it says something but not sure what. It just doesn’t seem like that amount of time and effort is worth the small increase in credibility. And freakin’ everyone is going for it, too many.
Anyhow the guy who knew how to make an Excel model went to the top of my list. I don’t wanna hear some newbie talk my ear off about black freakin’ scholes.
Can I apply for the job too? :)
Cities teem with evil and decay, let’s give it a good shake and see what falls out!!
Can I apply for the job too. love to live in Seoul.
This is why I wish there was a practical designation that teaches what you actually need to know to work in equity research.
The CFA is supposed to be directed at research analysts (and portfolio managers), but teaches very little of what you need to know in order to perform well in an equity research job interview.
PERI could be a new designation: Professional Equity Research Interview examination.
You want a quote? Haven’t I written enough already???
Been saying this for a while and usually get flamed out :D
CFA is useful for stuff like pension fund management and equity allocation modeling. It is NOT useful for equity research, picking stocks and bonds, performing LBO analyses (buying companies), or any of the bottom up investing that a lot of people strive for. CFA is a good primer for academic finance and top down investing, and that’s about it. Both of those are wrong and don’t work in the real world IMO.
“I lost my wife to a margin call. Wives get mad when you come home and say, ‘Sweetheart, I lost the house today.’” - Dennis Gartman on trading mistakes
Or how about one for private equity
Professional Private Equity Enterprise Designation
Call it the = PPEED
Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and greatest weakness.
It won’t lose its prestige so long as the pass rate remains low. A lot of the new CFA’s are international… they all aren’t in the U.S.
I also think just about all of the CFA material is very practical for actual investment decision making. It might not be so helpful if you are a spreadsheet monkey or trying to apply for a certain type of job.
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