I’ve compared the 2012 and 2013 CFA Level II readings and here is a summary of the differences:
Total number of readings down from 64 or 56. Good news!
Econ has changed completely. This is consistent with the Level I Econ changes between 2011 and 2012.
Equity: Three readings have been dropped: Note on Asset Valuation, Industry Analysis and Valuation in Emerging Markets. (The last one was a nightmare. I’m glad CFAI has realized that too!)
Alternative Investments: The two readings on real estate have been dropped and replaced with two new readings on real estate.
Fixed Income: Reading on credit analysis has been updated.
Derivatives: Reading on credit derivatives has been updated.
Portfolio Management: ‘Note on Harry Markowitz…’ and International Asset Pricing have been dropped.
Ethics, Quant, FRA and CF are unchanged.
I have a file which shows all the readings and highlights the differences. I don’t think I can upload the file here. If you want it just email your request to me at arif.irfanullah@gmail.com
Many thanks for the summary Arif. They all seem like sensible changes by the Institute.
I never really got to grips with Valuation in Emerging Markets last time round so I’m glad it has dropped out.
I won’t miss the markowitz or IAP either.
The credit derivatives reading seemed a bit light last time so I’ll be keen to see the rewrite.
For Economics, I think a lot of the exchange rate material dropped down to level 1 last year so maybe it has been replaced with something else for L2? If so I’d be gutted as cross rates, triangular arb etc are pretty easy marks.