kind of a sick reverse psychology… but hear me out
when i read a research report and the names of the analysts appear… i am generally more impressed with the guy/girl that DOESNT have the CFA… i mean WOW this person must be a real sharp/ sophisticated intellectual born genius and an over achiever their entire lives to get that position without the letters. the CFA is the easy way into ER… getting into research without the letters is tough.
in 10 years… EVERYONE will have the CFA… the analysts without the CFA will be the real gold standard…
The flaw in the argument is the assumption that the CFA Charterholders got the ER job because they are CFA Charterholders, and discounting the likelihood that they got the CFA Charter because they are in ER (which provides both the motivation to take the exams and the work experience to get the letters).
There are other flaws too, which is that people get jobs through connections, luck, etc… There’s nothing that says you need to have a CFA to do good equity research. In fact, I don’t think the CFA really has all that much in it on ER that a dedicated ER person can’t learn from other sources. It’s really designed for PMs more than ER people. But many ER people hope to be PMs one day, which is why it is more likely that ER -> CFA more than CFA -> ER.
^^ i should have said “research” in general (equity/debt/credit/AI) just because they actually publish reports (sell side) with the names of the authors, and form some sort of notoriety. as opposed to anonymous buyside guys.
an appendix of some bank reports include the names of all the analysts grouped my industry… and it appears in recent years more and more have the CFA designation…
its very common that the “head of research” is not a CFA… and has a bunch of analysts that are… i think in the next 10-20 years this will be unheard of, and it will be curious as to why they dont have it…thats what im saying
Here’s what I noticed. Older folks with a lot of experience are more likely to go about without the CFA, which makes sense. Experience tops everything. The younger ones are more likely to have it. But I’ve actually seen the opposite, where the team heads generally have the charter. And in terms of ER vs asset management, I’d say the proportion of CFA’s are higher for PMs than research analysts.