Hello everyone…
I dont have a quant/stats/math background, and work more on the Risk Technology side (IT). And need to understand Valuation and risk modeling in depth for my job. I bought the all GARP text books for level FRM level 1 but having a really hard time understanding/grasping the material, especially quantitiative analysis and valulation/risk models.
I went through the text book for quantitative analysis first, it was tough but I think I might have grapsed maybe 50% of it. But when I started reading the Valulation and risk models text book, I felt totally lost and am having a real tough time.
Are there some preliminary text books I need to go through to build a strong foundation to understand the basics before reading the GARP material for Valuation and Risk models? Any advice for a newbie like me?
Any suggestions would be highly appreciated!!
Thanks much
First off, don’t feel bad - the material is tough. I’m in valuation, and the FRM material is tough. Part of the problem is just how much material is covered. I’m in energy derivative valuation - the material covers a much broader spectrum of topics than most will ever work in (at one time) professionally.
My suggestion is twofold: a) focus on the practice exams and study guide. If you reviewing the material without focusing on the specific study guide, then your focus is too broad. b) frequent review of material using flash cards on concepts you understand, and using your study time to focus on specific subjects. Simply reviewing the material page by page isn’t enough. Flash cards for the stuff that you have a decent grasp of but need to memorize, and study sheets for the stuff you don’t understand. I just spent two hours to understand about five pages of material last night.
Unless you have great resources at your disposal, don’t go outside the material too much. Conventions vary, specific vary.