I hope you can provide me some guidance about which one is more appropriate to go for CFA or FRM.
About me… I am a research analyst and my interest lies in field of equity research and financial engineering……. I feel CFA is a good option for sure but my dilema is will CFA cover enough of risk management?? As in today’s time risk management is gaining importance but is it so important that one need to have a certification only for risk management provided that person has cleared all levels of CFA… as I saw people who have cleared both CFA and FRM. And if your answer is that both are valuable which one I shall target first???
Also please tell me how much of time or number of attempts on an average a person takes to complete CFA and FRM?? (Offcourse in ideal conditions CFA can be completed in 1.5 years and FRM in a single day but I am speaking about an average person with job.)
Go for CFA, it is more broad and a nice knowledge base for any job within the finance industry. With a CFA, FRM will be fairly easy but FRM is more technical and great if you work in a risk department,. Hope this helps.
firsty CFA doesn’t take 1.5 year. Level 1 only in June and December and Both level 2 and 3 are sat once a year in June so your looking at a minimum or 2.5 years.
Secondly have you actualy spend sometime researching on both the CFA and FRM. Go and skip through the books and look at the syallabus and it will give you a good idea about what interests you. and if your a research analyst then CFA is ideal. As a research analyst your job is to find the best value company. and that’s what CFA is all about. Your looking for the intrinsic value. Do the CFA and good luck.
For sure you can complete the CFA program in a bit more than 1.5 years if you have the right background and are smart/work hard enough. If you look at the stats, most people won’t become charterholder and if they do it will take on average 4 years. Be prepared for some dedication but going through the program helped me a lot. Good luck!
+1 on this. I am actually doing this exact same order right now. If the results come out good for level 3 (crossing my fingers) then only FRM part 2 is left. I think that the overlap between the material helped in preparing for the next exam and alternating the exams gave some sort of a break. The derivs and other quantitative stuff on Level 2 helped me prepare for Part 1 and the risk management/swaps stuff on Part 2 helped in Level 3. I haven’t seen the Part 2 material but I guess that having Level 3 exam material fresh on my brain wouldn’t hurt when I’m preparing for Part 2 already.
But then again, don’t get too excited. You’re still studying for Level 1. It’s always nice to have a plan and I think that the above is a good one but sometimes people get carried away. Just focus on knocking down the current exam so that you can quickly move on to the next.
Regarding taking FRM in one day in passing, it’s definitely possible but it really depends on your schedule and how tired you are coming from Level 2.
By the way, are you a Level 1 candidate for June 2013 or Dec 2013? Either way, good luck and let us know how it goes.
I just sat for CFA L2 last Saturday and FRM just entered my radar. I passed CFA L1 last December. I have no real expectations of being able to make all 3 levels on first time, but it is nice to dream big. FRM sounds like a step in the right direction towards where I believe I have my sights set on.
I am currently an independent research analyst (trade recommendations for several hedge fund/family office type institutionals). Eventually, I want to expand from specific intra-asset class research (currently equities) to a more macro and multi-asset based portfolio advisory approach. In the last couple of years, I have been wholly enthralled with risk parity and the opportunities it entails (big fan and follower of Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio).
I have been and foresee being able to allocate more time than the average person working for a firm - I was able to put 30+ hours per week in the last 2 months. Do you think the FRM designation adds anything meaningful to my preparation? I am not really chasing more alphabet soup after my name - I have learned that it matters little if you do not actually have the goods to deliver.