I’m just wondering if any of you guys out there have done any CSI courses, besides the Canadian Securities Course. I am just finishing up that course right now (a requirement for my job) and wondering if I should think about doing any of the other ones, as they would be expensed by my employer. I am already a CFA Level II candidate, so at this point the CFA charter is my primary objective, but I thought during some downtime between exams it might be a good idea to tackle a couple of the CSI courses, seeing how the CSC has only taken me a couple weeks. Any thoughts?
useless, don’t waste your time.
I think it’s a good idea to get some CSI courses done if your employer is paying for them. Why not? Now, I am guessing that you work for a brokerage. I would suggest you do the Options course and get the license. If this doesn’t interest you, you could do the CIM designation which in my opinion is pretty easy to get, and has very similar contents as CFA L1 Portfolio Management. Bottom line, if you have spare time and your firm is paying, go for it.
i’m working on the options and futures licences right now. i’m paying for part of them but i think they’re worth having. aside from these licenses, the rest are useless, unless you want to be an advisor or something (like my boss, who has his CA and CFA and is an advisor/PM), then you’ll need your Wealth Management Essentials course. Question for anyone working in energy in Canada… do you need your futures license to trade energy futures? sounds like a dumb question, but i’m wondering if the futures license is only necessary for selling and trading equity futures to retail clients, or if its a prerequisite to energy trading? thanks 
oh and you have to take the CPH course to be able to trade anything i think. i’m sure your employer will tell you that.
Yes I took some over the years for required CE credits. PFP professional financial planning course (so you can use the term financial planner in BC also qualifies you to write the CFP exam) WTM weath management techniques Gives you FMA Financial Management Advisor (they don’t give this out anymore in favour of a new designation Ch P (Chartered Professional Strategic Wealth) - no comment on that one IMT investment management techniques PMT portfolio management techniques Gives you CIM (Canadian Investment manager) this and four year experience lets you be a Portfolio Manager or Investment Council) I would say they are informative but not very difficult. The IMT course has all the material to be a quality course and difficult but the exams were clearly not that challenging. My vertict is that if you want to be on the retail side dealing with individual cleints then they are sufficient. ie Advisor, Broker, IC/PM etc. But if you want to be working as this or anything else in the industry then the CFA is a better qualification.
I took CIM a long time ago, but there used to be portfolio management case studies on one of the exams which is a gentle introduction to the case studies in the L3 exam
The CSC and CPH is required for certain positions in Canada. Is it difficult? NO. Does it add value if it’s not required? Maybe a tiny bit. If it’s not required I would stay away from it. I’m not sure how much it costs to enroll now but last I heard it’s pretty expensive. The return on investment is very low. If your employer is willing to pay, go for it.
I remeber there being some case study typ equestions but not sure what exam. PMT was just one exam I think all the rest were 2 PMT had more about running a portfolio management company IMT had all the MPT stuff