Hi all, My goal is to take and pass: Level 1 in June 09 Level 2 in June 10 Level 3 in June 11 I have an American BA in Economics, with only 2 plus years of customer service/clerical work experience at banks. I also do self study in equity/forex trading (4 plus years now), as my ultimate goal when I pass the CFA is to become a professional institutional trader. Since my background in finance/quant stuff is limited, do you guys think my time line for taking each level once year is good idea? What are the pros/cons of taking each level once a year, preferably in June? thanks.
why wait for june 09 for level 1? there’s plenty of time to have a crack at it in June 08. If you fail L1 in jun 08 you always have a second shot in Dec 08, and then even a 3rd shot in Jun 09 if you need it. If your aim is to finish L3 by june 2011, the likelihood of achieving this would be much greater if you started in jun 08, than if you wait an extra year to start. Only 10-12% pass 3/3 exams, but probably something like 50% pass 3/5.
howdy null, i just heard about this CFA stuff this year so I decided to take level 1 in June 09 and the remaining levels in subsequent years. I want to devote at least 1 year of studying for each level so the the materials will become natural to me and not just memorize it only to forget what I studied after taking the exam. My aim is to study at my own pace (one level per year) so that I can retain at least 85% of the information…ultimately passing each level at one shot.
I would also recommend getting started on the requirement for 4 years of acceptable work experience.
Where I live, people are cursing the U.S. dollar and blaming it for the high inflation in the last couple of years. Since the local curency is pegged to the dollar, prices have been going up, in this high import nation. For years, inflation had been less than 1% but it started to climb sharply in recent years, 3% and higher. Pundits claim that floating the local currency or adjusting the peg will do the trick, but it isn’t easy. The government’s entire reserves are in U.S. dollar. It would be a big loss for them to revaluate. Also, those who buy U.S. goods are not complaining! Inflation in general is a demand-pull or cost-push. Here, it seems both are happening at the same time! Fahad
Howdy McLeod, Do you mean that studying, taking and passing all 3 CFA levels would be just a waste of time if I don’t have 4 years of acceptable work experience. Can i substitute the 4 years of acceptable work experience with 4 years of self study in equity/forex research/trading?
I’m sure it would still be good to have passed all three exams but you can’t become a charterholder without the 4 yrs of acceptable work experience. The work experience requirement is outlined on the CFAI website, but basically you need to have 4 years of real world experience / involvement in the investment decision making process. After passing all three exams, I would hate to have to wait around another 4 years to receive the charter.
cloud, if you want to get into trading, the CFA may not be the right path for you. It is all good knowledge to have, but not essential to trading. If that were my ultimate goal, I would try to get a back office job at one of these institutions doing trade clearance or something. Then learn several programming languages, the ins and outs of SQL, and everything you can find about arbitrage. That is really what traders do. Unless you are a prop trader, the analysis stuff is all left up to the research side. good luck