I need help with quant

julietlauren · February 16, 2020, 4:13am

I have been reading quant but to be truthfully, I don’t understand anything in it.

Please who can suggest the material I can read to properly understand.

not_a_CFA · February 16, 2020, 9:23pm

there are two books on derivatives that are highly regarded: one is Derivatives Market by Robert Mc Donald, and the other one is called Options, Futures and Other Derivatives by John Hull. they provide excellent explanations on derivatives, but may be in more depth than you will need for the CFA examination. (they are also fairly pricey - you can find used one at a more agreeable price). having said that, these books focus is on teaching derivatives, so it may not necessarily have all the formulas you will need for the CFA examination. they do a particularly good job at teaching forward and futures, swaps, option spreads, binomial option, black scholes, option greeks, volatility skew / volatility smile, as well as a few exotic options (asian, compound, barrier, gap, binary, etc) and more.

S2000magician · February 16, 2020, 9:52pm

not_a_CFA:

there are two books on derivatives that are highly regarded: one is Derivatives Market by Robert Mc Donald, and the other one is called Options, Futures and Other Derivatives by John Hull. they provide excellent explanations on derivatives, but may be in more depth than you will need for the CFA examination. (they are also fairly pricey - you can find used one at a more agreeable price). having said that, these books focus is on teaching derivatives, so it may not necessarily have all the formulas you will need for the CFA examination. they do a particularly good job at teaching forward and futures, swaps, option spreads, binomial option, black scholes, option greeks, volatility skew / volatility smile, as well as a few exotic options (asian, compound, barrier, gap, binary, etc) and more.

She’s asking about quant (i.e., statistics), not derivatives.

S2000magician · February 16, 2020, 9:56pm

Statistics II for Dummies might help. I haven’t read it, but most of the Dummies books are pretty good. It doesn’t appear to cover everything in Level II Quant, but it covers a lot.

I wrote some articles that may help as well. PM me if you’re interested.

not_a_CFA · February 16, 2020, 10:15pm

S2000magician:

not_a_CFA:

there are two books on derivatives that are highly regarded: one is Derivatives Market by Robert Mc Donald, and the other one is called Options, Futures and Other Derivatives by John Hull. they provide excellent explanations on derivatives, but may be in more depth than you will need for the CFA examination. (they are also fairly pricey - you can find used one at a more agreeable price). having said that, these books focus is on teaching derivatives, so it may not necessarily have all the formulas you will need for the CFA examination. they do a particularly good job at teaching forward and futures, swaps, option spreads, binomial option, black scholes, option greeks, volatility skew / volatility smile, as well as a few exotic options (asian, compound, barrier, gap, binary, etc) and more.

She’s asking about quant (i.e., statistics), not derivatives.

ah, my bad. i assumed quant was a shorthand for anything involving calculation, and my post focused on derivatives. as for statistics for CFA, i wonder if you need to know more than what is required by AP Statistics. if not, Barron’s AP Statistics seem to do a pretty good job teaching the material in a concise way. it also helps that they provide a way to test your understanding on the material in a test format - it is meant for ap test takers, afterall. if CFA requires a more advanced knowledge, then this regard this note.

S2000magician · February 16, 2020, 10:28pm

not_a_CFA:

S2000magician:

not_a_CFA:

there are two books on derivatives that are highly regarded: one is Derivatives Market by Robert Mc Donald, and the other one is called Options, Futures and Other Derivatives by John Hull. they provide excellent explanations on derivatives, but may be in more depth than you will need for the CFA examination. (they are also fairly pricey - you can find used one at a more agreeable price). having said that, these books focus is on teaching derivatives, so it may not necessarily have all the formulas you will need for the CFA examination. they do a particularly good job at teaching forward and futures, swaps, option spreads, binomial option, black scholes, option greeks, volatility skew / volatility smile, as well as a few exotic options (asian, compound, barrier, gap, binary, etc) and more.

She’s asking about quant (i.e., statistics), not derivatives.

ah, my bad. i assumed quant was a shorthand for anything involving calculation, and my post focused on derivatives. as for statistics for CFA, i wonder if you need to know more than what is required by AP Statistics. if not, Barron’s AP Statistics seem to do a pretty good job teaching the material in a concise way. it also helps that they provide a way to test your understanding on the material in a test format - it is meant for ap test takers, afterall. if CFA requires a more advanced knowledge, then this regard this note.

Level II Quantitative Methods includes simple regression, multiple regression, and time series.

breadmaker · February 16, 2020, 10:32pm

If you’re having trouble with TVM as well, get yourself a college level business math book. Heck, I’ve even seen high school level texts that do a decent job of explaining PV, FV, annuities, equivalent interest rates, etc.

Obligatory rant: And please, please, please read your calculator manual and work the examples!!! Your calculator is set up to do the grunt calculations for TVM and some stats stuff!!! It could save you time and grief during the &*$% exam!!!