Most difficult concept to master in Level III

CFA Level III
#21

Immunization (which I still haven’t grasped)

#22

I might get laughed at, but i found performance evaluation to be quite confusing.

also, +1 on time management

#23

I thought I was good in that, since I’m a performance analyst, but it turns out it was my worst part of matrix haha. Not telling my boss that.

#24

CPPI, buy and hold and constant mix. In the Trading and Rebalancing section. Neither the Institute materials nor Schweser seemed to be really clear. I went to the original article the section was based on, drew a chart and voila!

#25

Behavioral finance was the one that I couldn’t seem to nail no matter how much time I spent on it. Interesting enough, I also thought it was the most enjoyable.

#26

Behavioral finance and GIPS took me a while to understand and memorize.

#27

I forgot about GIPS. I’m not sure if I failed to master it or just failed to embrace even learning it (it’s so hideously boring) but it was actually the one section on the PM (and the only section on L2/3) that I had <50 on. Oops

#28

Thanks for all the great responses so far. I am actually looking forward to this level more than any level so far. I think it’s just because level II gave me such an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. There were a lot of topics in level 2 that I would have really enjoyed much more if I wasn’t having to push so hard.

First and foremost based on the responses up to this point, I should figure out a way to practice time management. Keep em coming!

#29

GIPS

it is at the end of the curriculum and you are tempted to skip it

don’t but don’t use the curriculum to study it :wink:

#30

i agree with you mate. I only went over it by craming!

#31

sorry meant to agree with MunicipalBob

#32

I agree with time mgmt and structure!

I failed L3 the first time around because of poor time management and sloppy structure.

This year, I became a student of the morning essay - I reviewed the past 15 years of morning essays, had structured responses prepared (and had written them out numerous times), and, finally, trained myself to confirm the question being asked (and not jump to assumptions based on a past exam or how I read something in the curriculum). It is important to answer the question being asked.

#33

Currencies - Hedging

#34

performance attribution

#35

Asset Allocation and essay IPS.

#36

FI immunization stuff is difficult.

Currency(hedge or not) can get difficult and confusing if not practiced very thoroughly. IMO the currency material needs to be put together in one place instead of how it is organized at the moment.

Individual taxation stuff can get difficult.

IPS return calculations can get really tough at times.

BF gets difficult when grey areas are tested or when asked to differentiate between overlapping biases.

Alternatives/GIPs memorization stuff can get difficult to retain.

Basically they can make any topic look so hard on exam.

However, the most difficult part is “execution” of AM i.e time management, writing relevant/correct stuff and surviving traps. Doesn’t matter how well you know the stuff, what really matters is how you execute those 3 hours of AM (and do not underestimate PM also).

#37

Everything of above can be improved by a lot of practicing but BF is a pure improvisation like Ethics. This is not exact knowledge than some unique situations which are supposed to be solved by some sixth sense.

#38

I found behavioral to be an easier topic. Took some behavioral Econ courses in uni tho.

#39

Here’s my take- I felt that in the very first week of studying, I was already in a position to score 70+ on BF on th exam. The reason I tell people it’s one of the hardest (for me) at level 3 is that I just never seemed to get past that 60/70%- couldnt “master” it the way I could with IPS, Fixed income, derivs etc. It seemed like no matter how many times I read, reread and practiced, I was still getting 4 out of 6 on topic tests and missing some essay questions.

#40

I feel the same way, only not about BF. In my study prep there were sections that I felt very comfortable with and scored very high on with my mocks; however, my exam matrix showed the exact opposite of my prep. Economics is one of those for me.