Is the CFA for me? Strong dislike for accounting & trader background

CFA General
#1

Okay so excuse my long post but I guess I am in an identity/direction crisis.

Basic stats about myself= Currently 23yrs old, have a year work experience working in operations/investments after graduating from a non target with a 3.3 GPA with a bachelors in finance.

I wrote the CFA level 1 this Saturday…and was somewhat unprepared…was scoring around 55% avg on mocks. Anyways, only reason why I took this test was for a foot in the door at a better firm doing something more interesting…and to eventually help me become an analyst/portfolio manager.

I realized while studying for level 1 to become a “good financial analyst” I have to look at B/S, I/S, etc, and really understand all these accoutning rules and BS that I could really care less for.I’ve always been a rebel against the system and anything with “rules” such as accounting…I’ve hated with a passion.

Luckily enough I ended up graduating college and actually passed my financial and managerial accounting courses…barely. However after looking back at all my university textbooks after taking the level 1 test yesterday…I realize I did not learn a single thing. Sure maybe TVM and A=L+E, but that’s about it literally. TVM has a lot of use in real life applications and learned a lot from economics that I can apply to trading/global macro analysis.

So here’s my problem. I want to become a trader/analyst/PM/Hedge fund manager. I’ve always felt to become great at any of the above choices, I need to learn everything each role does. For example if I am trading AAPL based on technicals, I need to know the fundamentals of what the hell I am trading. If I am trading dollars, I felt like I should have a complete fundamental analysis done of what I am trading rather than a breakout pattern.

Basically my hate/dislike for accounting > my desire to brush up on fundamental analysis. My hate/dislike for accounting > my desire to become a CFA charterholder for a foot in the door at an established firm.

My hate/dislike for accoutning > my desire to become a financial analyst/equity research analyst.

So WTF am i supposed to do??? Sure the answer may be, “suck it up and learn accounting.” However I don’t see the point of doing/learning something I hate. But by not doing CFA, there are less doors opened which equates to less things I could be learning at a great firm.

So far I have come up with the following options:

  1. Focus on what I am good at and make my own road: Study and master TA, read more trading books, and practice and practice. Get laughed at in the investment industry and academics, but I believe in TA despite the mockery. Although an average trader currently, try to become one of the greats like Paul Tudor. 2. Go teach English in Asia/join military and continue to do #1. 3. Relearn my native language (school), and get a job after done with curriculum. ex:Bloomberg using my finance and native language background.Also while doing #1 on the side, but maybe hard with school+work at home country+hobbies. 4. Continue to work at a dead end job being underpaid, while doing #1 on my freetime. 5. Suck it up and learn accounting and memorize ratios/formulas for CFA level 1. But in the REAL WORLD, there IS GOOGLE and MOST people can just reference that, no need to memorize 100+ formulas/ratios and the 20+ differences between GAAP AND IFRS!!!

Despite my hate for accounting/slaughtered by level 1 test, I am still kind of interested in it for the “challenge” aspect.

#2

Hello, OP. The productive thing for you to do would be to realistically focus on the options that are available to you.

A direct route to trading/PM is hard to see, given that people with relevant experience are clamoring for these jobs, and you don’t seem to have the requisite technical background or academic pedigree for most reputable companies. CFA is useful when applying to these jobs, but you need to meet the basic requirements first.

You could possibly make it into some entry level equity research job, provided that you are able to network aggressively, and you are open to learning some basic accounting and valuation (example: CFA). But again, this might happen or might not happen.

Going abroad probably won’t help further your finance career, but is maybe a good thing if you want the cultural experience.

Worse case is you stay in your Ops job, be very good, and hopefully move to the position you want. This happens more often than people think (just last week, my docs guy moved to another position). However, you must be a model employee and not just do the bare minimum, which people tend to do. If you fail, you just continue to work in Ops, which is what most peope do.

Any route for you is going to be hard, and don’t expect any golden tickets. It will probably take years of boring and hard work for you to get where you want, but that is the cost of getting ahead.

Good luck in whatever you decide, anyway.