I was just having a thought, since Warren Buffet, Charles Munger et all are some of the worlds most famous investors, I wonder if they would be able to pass the CFA exams ( all 3 levels) on the first try and with flying colors. Being experts in their field, I am guessing why not.
No, because CFA teaches you very specific things with very specific definitions that might not match conventional knowledge. There is no “truth” in investing. Everyone has different opinions.
Yes, I have been to the last 10 Annual meetings and have read almost every Berkshire annual reports and believe that WEB would have no problem completing the CFA first try.
I would be very impressed if anyone could pass any of the exams without studying at all, even WEB (not that he couldn’t do it, but I would certainly be impressed). Example: Do you really think he knows the difference between nominal, ordinal, ratio, and interval scales? I doubt that’s something he works with everyday…
would you really be impressed?? really?
I believe both could pass all 3 on the first try with room to spare. However if you mean “without studying”, then no, I don’t believe so. Despite being absolute investing titans, I think there’s too much specific terminology for anyone to walk in and know how CFAI is going to test something. I think Buffett would also probably smirk a bit at some of the academic sections. I’m paraphrasing here but I believe he’s said, “You should know how to read a balance sheet and income statement, but there’s no need for equations with greek letters.” Despite his modesty, I’m sure he could wax the exams with a minimum of review. I say this as a complete Buffett fanboy and a huge Munger follower as well. Both are two of the best investors and clearest writers the finance community could ask for.
Buffett would crush L1, no doubt. L2 and L3 would require minimal study time. Apparently he only needs a few hours with a 10k and pencil to determine whether or not he wants to buy. The only area i could see Buffett having to brush up on would be Quant and of course Ethics. He is well exposed to the 8 other topic areas on a daily basis.
Why would WEB even care about CFA? Seriously.
Actually I feel Ohai brought up a very interesting point. When he says “There is no “truth” in investing. Everyone has different opinions.” I remember having a beer with a ph.d buddy of mine, he had done some finance stint and jokingly told me, something like “in finance, if you want to be successful, you should firstly know your stuff, and secondly and more importantly, you should know how to BS to convince people you know what you are talking about, even if it might be wrong”. This is unlike science fields I guess, where you have fixed formulas and theories to work with, and you are either right or wrong and nothing in between. (disclaimer: I have no science background, but talking to my engineering friends, kinda give me the reason to make my point).
Yeah knowing how to talk in engineering is a lot more important then knowing formulas you learned a few years ago…
Not sure what you meant by that…seems kinda sarcastic…but what I was trying to say is that…for me finance seems to involve a lot of “maybes, ifs, buts, assumptions, probably” etc, which one could utilize according to his/her convenience to prove that he may be right on some particular point. Just watching CNBC (which I am not a big fan of) shows the amount of BS people spit out and can’t be proven per se. And thats why since everyone has their own opinions, maybe they might not agree on some particular point, even though they could both be right. That’s kinda what got me thinking about Buffet (or any other investor for that matter) and CFA. What if maybe Buffet doesn’t agree with what the CFA teaches, does that make him wrong? And CFAI goes on to say “sorry buddy, you fail, you can never a charterholder”
I bet they would fail. Because A) they wouldn’t care and B) they would disagree with much of the material. Both CM and WB are very strong willed and would not be willing to bend their perception to match the CFA curriculum. CM considers corp finance and EMH to be anthema, he considers cost of equity ludicrous, hates forecasts and doesn’t buy into formulaic processes. That’s not a good starting point.
^ right on. This “debate” is sort of meaningless (although not to the degree of CFA vs. MBA vs. NBA)
I can see Buffet encountering the first question that was written by CFAI dickhead and stopping dead and walking out. The exam is made by dickheads with no idea on how the real world works. Buffet will not tolerate that bull shit.
Jimmy Buffett would own the exams.
I believe the correct terminology is pwned.
timotimo Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I can see Buffet encountering the first question > that was written by CFAI dickhead and stopping > dead and walking out. The exam is made by > dickheads with no idea on how the real world > works. Buffet will not tolerate that bull shit. A huge chunk of the CFA is FSA. In what areas of FSA does the curriculum differ from the “real world?” Does Net Income increase with an increase in depreciation in the real world? What about fixed income? Are bond prices and rates positively related in the real world? ‘Splain.
Buffet vs a hurricane. Who wins? The hurricane is named hurricane Buffet.
There’s no way he could pass ethics without studying. I think quant would be hard too. There’s no reason for him to know linear regression formulas and z-scores and all that craziness. As far as the rest he’d ace it, no problems. I think he could pass all 3 tests with about 2-3 weeks of study for each, which is still outrageous compared to what it’s gonna take me to pass.
joemontana Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > timotimo Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I can see Buffet encountering the first > question > > that was written by CFAI dickhead and stopping > > dead and walking out. The exam is made by > > dickheads with no idea on how the real world > > works. Buffet will not tolerate that bull shit. > > > A huge chunk of the CFA is FSA. In what areas of > FSA does the curriculum differ from the “real > world?” Does Net Income increase with an increase > in depreciation in the real world? > > What about fixed income? Are bond prices and > rates positively related in the real world? > > ‘Splain. You definitely got some 'splainin to do.