+1
I couldn’t agree more. The CAIA now feels like a “nice add-on” instead of a stand-alone, challenging curriculum. I think it is important we continue to communicate our concerns with CAIA.
The priority of the organization now is just make more people taking the exam in order to collect fees…I don’t even think they think that far as what was discussed above in this thread…
I don’t even know if I passed level 2 yet, but if this goes through and the designation therefore becomes easy/useless, then I will simply not pay the dues and not use the designation on my resume. Or, if I failed level 2 I would not be motivated to take it again to pass. I’m not paying $350/year in dues for a junk designation!
Sweet! Good thing I decided to take some time off rather than going straight to the CAIA.
Now that’s just ridiculous. I am assuming they don’t have enough candidates, hence the stack of BS. If they would lower the fees, I am pretty sure there would be more people registering.
In any case, this is cheapening the designation - I mean, how can you take it seriously after this? I regret wasting time and money on CAIA right now.
And what about this:
The pilot program will also be open to students in the soon-to-be-launched Masters in Alternative Investments program at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, one of the original founders of the CAIA curriculum. This program was selected for the pilot based on its adoption of the learning curriculum from CAIA’s Level I textbook. In the future, other academic programs using CAIA’s curriculum in their teaching may also be added to the stacking initiative.
Masters in AI at some random university (Masters in AI, WTF!!!), ARE THEY KIDDING?
***CORRECTION***
I referenced that the cost for registering and taking the L II directly will be $1150. This is Incorrect since I did not add the $400 first time Registration Fees, which you know will be charged. If you take a simple average between early and late registration this will account for $1600 x 4000 Candidate = $6.4 Million… Really Really Lucrative Business.
I also agree with everyone here that we should be communicating our frustration with CAIAA. It looks like CAIAA did not want to float this idea before announcing the decision to avoid “THIS KIND OF REACTION” we are having. So I think we ought to still deliver our “VOTE” to them, maybe there is a change to save such a dilution to the CAIA designation and maybe our voice actually count.
I sent them a lengthy and detailed email and have my call scheduled, how about you?
CAIA was founded out of the UMASS Isenberg School of Business in conjunction with AIMA. So perhaps do a bit of research before knocking the initiative. In fact, CAIA partners with several universities around the world who teach alternative investments as part of their finance (either undergrad or grad level) degree programs…this one is just focused on alts exclusively.
Does anyone think the above will have any knock on effect whatsoever of the pass rate % for those that took level 2?
Also if a CFA qualified student failed level 1 this sitting does that mean they can sit level 2 in September?
I can appreciate that…there was a comment in the thread about UMASS being some random university and such which is not the case given it is the birthplace of the entire program. I would also challenge you on the comparison to CIPM…do you really believe that CAIA’s curriculum compares when lined up side by side? I don’t have either, but a quick look at CIPM compared to CAIA’s curriculum seems to have some glaring differences…i.e., quant review, asset allocation, portfolio management, and the overall application of alts vs manager selection and performance measurement/attribution. The comparison doesn’t seem apples to apples.
I’m curious as a CAIA member, what are your thoughts around brand recognition? It seems CAIA has struggled to gain recognition, even within the alts community, and so partnering with CFA may assist in building the reputation given their reach and history within this industry. Further to that, and I apologize if I missed this previously in the thread, as someone who has gone through all of these (CAIA, CFA, FRM) do you feel that the Level 1 CAIA is necessary for an individual who has already gone through the entire CFA program? Thanks for the insights and thoughts on this…it’s helping to flesh out some of the questions around all of this!
I will throw in my opinion on the " do you feel that the Level 1 CAIA is necessary for an individual who has already gone through the entire CFA program?" part… Yes, there isn’t much overlaps as one might assume… CFA exams are difficult and cover a wide range of topics… but CAIA Level 1 offers a more in-depth, and focused approach on alternative investments… As a CFA charterholder, I gained a tremendous amount of knowledge on the alternative space studying for CAIA Level 1, and that’s what I was hoping for…If those two designations are so similar, why would any CFA charterholder who already went through a lengthy CFA journey would pick up the books again and hoping to add CAIA behind their names…
I could not Agree more…
Do you personally feel as though this caste system will really take effect? In other words, you feel as though an individual who doesn’t have CFA and CAIA is less than someone who just has their CAIA or that they should be respected less in this community? Also, has there been a sacrifice in the content being delivered? I’m not sure if I will pursue this now, but am curious to get your thoughts.
I was recently at an event with CAIA and a few other groups and the focus was on professional development within the financial services industry. The overarching message I took away, was that you should pursue advanced designation programs in order to be competitive in the industry or go back and get a master’s degree…which I would prefer not to do. So my question in the end is, what does it matter at the end of the day?
Does anyone know if CAIA is still providing the same content they did before or did the quality of content also change? As for the other topics or asset classes to consider, I believe I heard on an “Orientation Session” that they use the supplement material in their level 2 to test out new ideas for future versions of the curriculum…is anyone else aware of this? Finally, can’t you bypass other securities registrations, designations, and some degree programs if you already have the CFA? If so, why should this be different?
As an aside, I really appreciate the thoughts and insight as this is a career changing move I’m about to embark on and want to ensure I’m fully educated in making my decisions. So, Thank You!
I think Greybeard made some really good points…and BK was a good example … This I believe is a ploy to get more CFA charterholders to get this designation, so, when two CFA charterholders meet, one that has CAIA designation and other that does not…one will likely rub along on the other…so, the other will not wanting to be left behind will… and so it goes … if even 5% of the CFA charterholders catch up to this designation there will be a lot more membership for CAIA.
I do not think there was a comparison made to compare the CIPM course content to the CAIA… the comparison was made to state the fact that CIPM offers a similar pass over to Level 2 for CFA charterholders. and now CAIA is following the same suite.
Yes, CAIA curriculum Level I has vastly different additional content compared to that covered in the three levels of CFA. wonder if the CAIA Level 2 is going to be modified to move the new content into Level 2 and push the content that is mostly similar to CFA onto CAIA Level 1, and, make CAIA Level 2 tougher…
I value the content I learnt at both levels and picked up a lot of additional information between the two level 2 (Level 2 results still pending)… and wish they had done more to up the ante and find the right mix of material and made CAIA designation cherishable and parallel to CFA (understand to a lesser degree) for Alternatives and wish they had not followed this path…
For those wondering if the level 2 exam for CAIA will become tougher now that they’re going with this stackable program, I can’t imagine that will happen. If anything, they’d likely increase the pass rate to show how CFA charterholders are doing so well, passing the CAIA program right away as a way to entice other CFA charterholders to sign up, all in the spirit of making more money. That’s all CAIAA cares about, right? So why would they make the test harder?
I wonder how much money CFA Institute is making off of this stackable program. They would definitely want something, right, to be associated with CAIA? Does this make the CFA charter less elite now?
I supposed I’m confused a bit as to why the downgrade? Is it purely because CAIA is streamlining the process for a select group of individuals who have, presumably, demonstrated their proficiency via CFA for information in this industry OR because you feel as though the content and rigor demanded to understand alternatives has changed? As I understand it, the curriculum has not been changed at all. For that matter, and I am no expert at this, but have come to understand that their curriculum has become more challenging since inception. If that is the case, has there been any indication that the actual curriculum will become easier? It would seem as though with the further inclusion of alternatives in the market, the more CAIA will be required to incorporate these topics as part of their curriculum going forward.
The reputation downgrade you mention is something that is of concern to me as a candidate and would love for you to dive a little deeper as to why the reputation would be degraded by working with a presumably highly reputable organization such as CFA. If CFA is the ‘Gold Standard’ the industry touts it to be, why would it be a bad move for a correlated (dad joke) designation program to partner with them and streamline the process? I have several colleagues who are CFAs who have been reluctant to take on the CAIA as they’ve felt they shouldn’t be required to revisit information they’ve already been exposed to in the CFA. To your point about CAIA’s reputation in this industry, I continue to run into alts managers who have never heard of CAIA but are extremely familiar with CFA…this seems like a problem that currently exists for the organization and this pilot may be a way for them to enhance their reputation? No?
You mention that this is a place for analysts and such, and having an MBA, I can certainly appreciate the position CAIA has taken in order to build further awareness and recognition of their program. I can’t believe this is profit driven as they are a non-profit to begin with, and while these types of business structures may not command the same level of profit as other’s (and perhaps I’ve drank too much CAIA KoolAid), I believe their intention is to fundamentally fill a gap in education that currently exists in this industry rather than make money…this is why I was drawn to their program.
At the end of the day, we all will have a different point of view or opinion on stuff like this, but am curious to your thoughts on what they could be doing to build brand awareness and further attention to their program that they are not currently exploring…i.e., what ideas does the group have that could have been fruitful for the organization to consider outside of this pilot?
Ill keep this short and sweet. Its complete garbage. I have spent since last November studying for level I CAIA and Level III CFA and now its apparently all for not. What a complete waste of time and money.
Side note: I did manage to pass Level I but still, all the time spend could have used towards Level III
Don’t disagree with too much of what’s been said. But to balance this out:
- reading the CAIA commentary, this has been a project long in the making, involving the entire CAIA team and a lot of the CFA people too… wasn’t just a kneejerk “grab members” initiative
- CAIA’s at pains to emphasise this is a pilot available to a small sliver of CFA candidates out there; it’s explicitly an experiment. I’m guessing that the CAIA peeps are watching carefully not only the empirical results of the experiment but also the market buzz/commentary around it
- CAIA is IMHO the most relevant qualification for institutional asset owners and their advisors (yes, I believe the syllabus is way more relevant today than CFA) but it lacks the brand recognition it needs for its members really to see career benefit. Strikes me that this initiative might just be a big leap to the brand recognition we all need. I know that I know what I need to know, and I know I’m good at what I do… but would be helpful if more of the world understood that my CAIA charter was a shorthand for this.
I think I read that this is a three-year pilot. Let’s watch and see what happens. Too early to tell, but there are some positive outcomes I can envisage, as well as the negatives that this thread has focussed on.
I feel like a broken record, but as CAIA Charterholders/Candidates we need to continue to share this feedback with CAIA. I would encourage everyone to share their thoughts with CAIA (as I have).
It could be that CAIAA are aware that membership fees are expensive and the only way to drive it down is to boost membership. So could be a win win. CAIA becomes more recognised, has more members, and members pay lower fees
I understand that CFA members that are sitting for Level 1 should be mad because they did not need it. However, as a CFA member, I think this makes sense. I have seen the Level1 book and a CFA member should be able to pass this. Almost all the topics are covered in the three levels of CFA.