FRM Level1.........

FRM
#1

Planning to take up FRM Level1 exam this year… Please share your thoughts on the same…

  1. CFA or FRM?

  2. Reference of some good training providers

Thank you in advance to all those who are willing to help the newbie…

Regards,

Mickey

Make it Happen!

#2

It’s a very general question, but yeah, do it. I have the CFA and CAIA Charters myself, and just passed L1 FRM this past November. Taking L2 in May. Way more quantitatively-driven than either the CFA or CAIA. I myself am positioning to transition over to more of the risk management/quant stuff so it makes sense for me. Plus, if you’re anything like me, you’re bored as s**t with the tired descriptions of fundamental strategies and approaches – every value manager thinks he is a genius for buying “cheap stocks paying high dividends with good balance sheets.” Many people like to knock quants and risk folks since they heard in either The Black Swan or (worse) Lecturing Birds on Flying that quants were dumb rule-and-output followers and so based on a 6-hour investment in a book, they believe that they know enough to dismiss an entire field of study (don’t get me wrong, the first book is one of the best reads of my life; the second, on the other hand, is more disposable than a foam coffee cup). My view is, I don’t agree with some of the philosophical underpinnings of some quantitative approaches, but how will you really know unless you go down the rabbit hole and really understand the theories, formulas and processes for yourself? Think of it as a learning experience if this is your kind of thing. If you just want three more letters but aren’t really interested in going deep quant, you’ll be miserable for another year of your life. Depends on what you want.

As for training providers, I used Schweser for L1 and didn’t feel that it prepped me the best, so this time I got the full-boat Schweser package (with the videos and all the trimmings), but supplemented with a Bionic Turtle Tier 1 package (just for additional questions…also, the BT questions are known to be slightly more realistic for the test than the Schweser questions).

Hope that helps, Mickey.

#3

Thanks Destroyer of Woods…This post of yours has put me into a thought process now…:slight_smile: