I am working in the HFT firm. No one has a CFA charter and even my boss does not know what it is.
My question is should I apply for the charter as I pass level 3? If I go to CFA networking session, will I only see those qualitative analyst who only talk about analyst report?
Sure the charter helps, but there is one thing at the end of the day that matters in the hedge fund industry, and frankly the only thing that matters: making money.
Why are you asking if you should apply for the charter? After minimum 2.5 years you’re questioning whether or not to fill in some info? Surely it’s a no-brainer to apply for the charter.
As Numi says, HFs care about making money, so you need either a good track record or something to convince them you are capable of turning a profit and keeping investors happy. CFA gives you credibility but if you turn up to work and make too many mistakes (lose money) you’ll be gone in no time.
I did it in one try for all 3 levels. I started L1 in college and of course continue doing it. To be honest, I think it the toughest exam in my life until I studied FRM
This is like learning to drive. After you know how to drive, you realise you don’t need it as you migrated to an island where there is no car (no one in my company know what is CFA)
It will be a no-brainer if the charter is free
apply for it. Just don’t broadcast it.
I find it hard to believe that you work in a financial hub in asia at a HFT and nobody knows what the CFA is. Granted not everything you do is focused on by CFA but still…
I did not say nobody know. I just said that my boss did not know and none of my colleague attempted/had the charter
but, you did say no one in your company knows what the charter is…
… and the charter is not free. There are annual dues.
Having cleared 2 levels of FRM,i do agree with you that difficulty wise FRM>>>CFA .
Recognition wise CFA>>>>>>>FRM.
sorry the statement was my mistake.
It doesn’t expire. You can apply for the charter in 10 years if you want.
CFA Charter is very much respected in hedge fund industry . It is a part of finance and investments . Every where in the world wherever the work in finance is happening , It is recognised . First you should try to pass the Level 1 then Level 2 and after that Level 3 sequentially . Your work experience will be well recognised by the institute . And you will get the CFA charter after 4 years of work experience.
You are really annoying.
The hedge fund industry is so diverse, it really depends.
If you are doing traditional equity or fixed income analysis, but are using the hedge fund format to get leverage or do long-short stuff, then the CFA charter will help, but obviously not nearly as much as a demonstrated track record. However, people have to start somewhere and it doesn’t hurt and can help, especially if you were not a finance undergrad or didn’t grow up in a finance-oriented family.
For HFT, it’s really hard to see how the CFA would help at all. There’s perhaps a tiny amount of stuff on trade execution that might be mildly relevant, but what HFT does is just so different from the substance of the CFA material that I can’t see people being all excited about it, unless you are using CFA to say “don’t pay attention to my non-relevant major in college, I know something about finance.”
For quant funds and CTAs, the CFA charter isn’t quantitative enough to impress. A MFE is a better bet there.
It’s probably mildly helpful for event-driven funds and distressed asset funds, because you still have to go through the valuation exercise, but what tends to be more useful is a good network of contacts for trying to figure out how these events will play out, but IB experience can substitute for CFA type knowledge and will generally be preferred anyway, because IB people tend to have the relevant networks.
I find I use a fair amount of CFA material in macro work, but I’m not sure it’s really required or valued by the people I work with. They love to put all my letters on the papers that they stick in front of clients, but I don’t get the sense that they particularly respect the letters themselves.
My clients at more traditional mutual funds definitely respect the CFA.
This is one of the stupidest posts ever.
“CFA Charter is very respected in hedge funds.” How do you know that? Ever interviewed anybody with a CFA at a hedge fund? Do you know anybody who works at a hedge fund? Can you give us any reason to make us think you know what you’re talking about?
“Everywhere in the world wherever the work in finance is happening, it is recognized.” Huh? I don’t even know what this means.
“It is a part of finance and investments.” No shit.
“First, you should try to pass Level 1, then Level 2, then Level 3 in that order.” No shit.
“Your work experience will be recognized by the institute.” No shit.
“And you will get the charter after 4 years of experience.” Again, no shit.
^ LOL Greenman72…agreed
I was literally going to rip that post apart exactly like you did here, but I thought some haters would get their flame on again, so out of laziness, I decided not to.
130% agree with you greenie
Edupristine is an education partner of CFAI in India.
I am unable to understand what motivated “edupristine” to comment on “hedge fund industry”.
Hedge fund industry is not very well developed (if at all it exists in the 1st place) in India.
I actually recommend doing level 3, level 2 then level 1. It worked well for me
is edupristine some sort of bot that randomly makes posts on this board to promote a service? The posts are always some random comment that is somewhat related to the topic being discussed, but rarely ever make sense.
I’m normally reading interesting posts in a thread and then some random ass post from edupristine pops up, I read it and think, “WTF?” I normally move right on, but I got a chuckle out of Greenman’s post calling him/it out.
Naive? perhaps. However, it pales in comparison to the ridiculousness that spews from you jabronis on every other post.