Just venting… I am rapidly approaching 400 hours study time since February and at least once or twice a day I find some querky formula or concept I’ve never seen before (or recall seeing at least).
I guess my mistake was reading through the Schweser abbridged curriculum and not the CFAI curriculum.
This afternoon I came across the “mid-market forward premium” in ECON. Apparently, mid-market implies you simply take the mid-point between the dealer bid-ask spread. It’s so simple yet I have no recollection of coming across it before.
Anyone else runnig into weird one-off formulas? Please share them:) Especially share if they are the short intuitive formulas like the one I mentioned above.
… 4 more days until I can drink all night on Saturday and play video games all day on Sunday. It’s going to feel like heaven.
yup I saw that, and am fairly sure it’s not used in the real world ( the widget is the same as the spot quoting, with the premium in a smaller font - the spread is much wider anyway even at 1month).
…but it is the cfai way, so I will not be caught out by it…
I suggest you focus on getting the equations you know, memerised properly - I messed up the HHI bands already.
Yeah, the mid-market forward premium is in the CFAI material. The worst is I’ve come across methods to calculate values that aren’t actual formulas in the book, but are shortcuts to the same value. One thing I can think of off the top of my head is the calculation of terminal residual income value by calculating it as a parpetuity rather than using the justified RI terminal in the book.
I think Econ is the worst for that but I’m seeing it other places too. I think as long as you’ve got the main formulas down those secondary types of formulas shouldn’t come up much on exam day
If you relied on Kaplan Schweser, then get used to it. I did it last time (I’m a L2 retaker) and when I took the CFA there were three or four instances of things that I was pretty sure I wasn’t exposed to. Personally, I did not go with Schweser this time because of that fact, but I have to be honest I think I’ve probably glossed over 3-4 things in the CFA texts that will come up on the test that I don’t think I’ll know either. On the whole, the average counts, although I certainly understand your frustration.
In addition, I feel more comfortable I did the CFAI route this time – in the end, Kaplan doesn’t know what the CFAI will test on and there will be times they will leave some stuff out that will get tested…whether it’s a simple term or a presentation of material. I did buy KS’s qbank again – it is worth it – but I really used EOCs and I also bought Elan 11th Hour CFA study guide and formula sheet for a different presentation of material.
I mean it’s bound to happen whether you use a 3rd party or not. Look at the CFA AM mock. They asked about the COASE THEOREM. I read that chapter, it’s in there alright, but it’s not even bolded or italicized. I don’t even think it’s in the glossary. Just one sentence and it’s worth just as much as knowing the H-model or residual income or whether to use the current rate or temporal method.
One sentence on one page of one book. God bless this exam.
Precisely for this question I asked whether anyone had the full list of all the theorists mentioned in the curriculum. From Taylor to Modigliani, Gordon, Ibbotson, Vasicek, Porter, Dickey, Fuller, White, Hansen…worse is I could have gotten the question right if it had to do with any of these faces. COASE? Negative sir, I do not recall this man.
How 'bout that CDS reading? After you’ve gone through the entire derivative section, when you see the light with a short CDS reading, it’s almost a given you’re gonna skim through, even if unconsciously. Those 5 formulas looked entirely foreign when I reviewed them today. Looks to me as an easy place to trip ppl up if you’re an exam writer.
I studied with schwesser my first time around. When i sat for the test i had times where I didn’t even know what the question was about. Schwesser is good if you want a different look at a topic but, i only focus on CFAI material this time around. AND, the more obscure the formula, the more i memorize it. The test last time had way more obscure things than main topics. the big formulas I spent so much time on were not even used. FML.
Hilarious