As someone pursuing CAIA I am wondering what else would be good to obtain to ensure a long future in AI. Anyone out there with their CFA or FRM, now doing CAIA? Why are you doing both, and what are you doing now, and where do you want to go?
have PRM and FRM and now pursuing CAIA level 1
I’m an actuary and post crisis there is a big focus in risk Managemnt and investments so having FSA not enough
CFA will always be considered a more complete, known and respected designation. If you want to add another one to your repertoire, do the CFA.
+1
The place I’m interviewing at, even though it’s for hedge funds due diligence, all have or are working on their CFA’s. I guess CFA is the right one… hopefully I get the job so I can do it for free!
Like I mentioned before, the best way to know is to look at the job postings and the bios of people at the companies you want to work for.
I have CAIA and am doing Level 3 CFA…CFA > CAIA…but CAIA was fun, we have some fun events around here with free food and booze.
Hi
After Doing CAIA do you find CFA alot harder?
How much more effort did you put into CFA vs CAIA?
It’s not that I find CFA harder, I just find CAIA easier. I did this:
June 2012: CFA Level 1 September 2012: CAIA Level 1 March 2013: CAIA Level 2 June 2013: CFA Level 2 Currently, studying for CFA Level 3 in June 2014. After CFA Level 1, CAIA was way less material. I only studied 6-8 weeks compared to the 4-5months I did for CFA Level 1. I didn’t think I did well on CAIA Level 1 after leaving the exam but I got “higher” or “outstanding” on all of the sections (it breaks topic out by Weak, Lower, Comparable, Higher, Outstanding). I spent ~3 months on CAIA Level 2 which only totaled to about 149 hours of study and got higher or outstanding on all sections, more outstandings this time around. I spent 2.5 months on CFA Level 2 but that totaled to about 258 hours because it was a lot more material and harder.
I treated all exams with urgency for sure. I stressed over CAIA just like I stressed over CFA but always kept in mind that it’s doable. CAIA (especially level 2) is more about memorization and knowing what has been going on in the industry, who’s researching what, what methods work, who committed fraud, and it gives you a taste for the actual alternative asset classes out there (like timber), PE and VC which are included are becoming more mainstream in my opinion, not so much alternative anymore. CFA though is much more applied and conceptual at the same time. It covers the wide spectrum of finance from equites, fixed income, derivatives, accounting, corporate finance, portoflio management, alternative investments, quant methods, economics, etc. CAIA Level 2 requires studying but not even as much as CFA level 1 because there is just so much less material. Perhaps the depth of material in those two is comparable with CFA level 1 winning by a bit. CFA level 2 depth of material wipes out CAIA level 1 and 2 combined. Bottom line, theyre different exams and CFA is more involved than CAIA.
Great, thanks for your views.