What the hell is happening? Can any of the Level 3 takers confirm whether they got rid of the fluff or is the hard stuff still there? Is this a significant change? http://www.cfainstitute.org/CFA%20Program%20Study%20Session/2014_L3_StudySessions_combined.pdf
While Level 2 got 4 new readings, arn’t you glad we passed it this time.
If you can tell me what those 8 readings are, then can confirm the same!
Do not see any dramatic changes in CBOK
cool
It looks like all the big stuff is still there.
Did they get rid of “dreaming with the brics?” I was so hoping or an essay in that one 
There were a few on BRICS, werent they… All hopelessly monotonous which you could even read from Business line or Economic Times or Bloomberg
Never understood why they had that chapter about BRIC’s
It would have been useful 15 years ago. But considering how many candidates are from Chindia and the bull maket let we’ve experienced in The Brics it was a bit like having a ten page reading about the sky being blue.
They’ve cut Robert Merton’s “Allocating shareholder capital to pension plans” - unbelievable. It was a great speech given by Merton (the edited transcript of which was the reading) - very valuable insights.
Dreaming with BRICs is gone - as it should be! That’s completely outdated material.
The swaps reading and commodities readings in Alts are gone. Those were some useful basics.
Did they ADD anything or are they just making this easier?
commodities reading in level 2,2014
Here’s a complete list I made up of where the changes are in 2014 vs 2013:
Study Session 4 Replaced “Low-Basis Stock Integrated Wealth Management: The New Direction for Portfolio Managers, by Jean L. P. Brunel, CFA” with “Concentrated Single Asset Positions by Thomas J. Boczar, CFA, and Nischal R. Pai, CFA” Study Session 5 Eliminated “Allocating Shareholder Capital to Pension Plans, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance” Study Session 7 Eliminated “Dreaming With BRICs: The Path to 2050, Global Economics Paper Number 99, by Dominic Wilson and Roopa Purushothaman” Study Session 8 Eliminated “The Case for International Diversification Global Investments, Sixth Edition, by Bruno Solnik and Dennis McLeavey, CFA” Study Session 10 Eliminated “Hedging Mortgage Securities to Capture Relative Value, Fixed Income Readings for the Chartered Financial Analyst® Program, Second Edition, Frank J. Fabozzi, CFA, editor” Study Session 12 Eliminated “Emerging Markets Finance, by Geert Bekaert and Campbell R. Harvey Journal of Empirical Finance, Volume 10, Issue 5” Study Session 13 Eliminated “Swaps, Derivatives Markets, Second Edition, by Robert L. McDonald” and “Commodity Forwards and Futures, Derivatives Markets, Second Edition, by Robert L. McDonald” Study Session 17 Eliminated “Global Performance Evaluation, Global Investments, Sixth Edition, by Bruno Solnik and Dennis McLeavey, CFA”
Good summary Giovanni.
None of the above readings are fluff - except for “Dreaming with BRICs”. In my opinion, this is a significant reduction of material.
Here is the 2013 curriculum if anyone wants to compare http://www.elitebook.co/2013/2013.Level.3.CFA.Program.Curriculum.Outline.rar
were these the easy topics that got removed and now CFA is going to test us in depth on the harder ones?
I wouldn’t hold my breath thinking the curriculum has gotten easier for 2014. Most of the eliminated material has likely been incorporated into other readings.
The way it appears to me, the CFA curriculum is basically a collection of different articles written by different authors. So if they eliminate reading X, they don’t modify the others to include what X omitted unless it notes that it is revised (e.g. 2nd, 3rd edition).
The one thing they can do is change the LOS for a given reading, so instead of ‘describe’ you may now be asked to ‘calculate’.
To me this makes sense, better narrow down the material so it integrates better and can be tested with more depth than to expect a candidate to know a little something about everything.
Wow lucky batch
in L2 we got 56 readings instead of 63
Now again 20% material reduced in l2 wow
This is irrelevant. The testable material is still the same as it was in the past 10 years or more.
I am already looking for some old, used & cheap schweser material, just like I did for level 2