I was fine with the alternative asset valuation part until I hit the Private Equity part - and was blown away. Seriously, this section does not need to get THIS in detail (cash sweep?) How ridiculously long is this section - dang near 40 pages! And I’m going into private equity after the test!!! Rant over…
Funny you should mention it, I’m going through this right now. I agree, it’s totally ridiculous… but I can’t help but think that this is probably highly likely to be tested given it’s more than half the material! And 42 concept checkers, are you kidding me?!
Yeah, my thoughts exactly. But seriously, they go way overboard. They don’t even cover half this stuff in business school. This is a great “detailed” overview, but I’m still blown away that the CFA expects people to know the topic at this level of detail. I just read the ethics material instead, and finished with a feeling of bitter anger for the CFA. The ethics is the only section they created by themselves! The rest of this reading is stuff other “geniuses” (Graham, Dodd, Williams, etc) came up with! Must be soooo easy to just add stuff to the cirriculum when you don’t have to create the content yourself…why not throw in quantitaive trading into the curriculum next. Oh, and throw in art and jewelry investing why you’re at it. Sigh…
Business school is for wimp. CFA teaches you real finance.
wangta01-all that stuff that was covered in business school, that was all regurgitated and unoriginal as well…I don’t like the PE material either (due to length), but you can’t fault CFAI for thinking it is an important topic. You can, however, fault them for ruining every spring for years on end.
Unfortunately you can’t do stuffs about it. They would very likely test this material although it is only the first year they are offering this material
tvPM Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > wangta01-all that stuff that was covered in > business school, that was all regurgitated and > unoriginal as well…I don’t like the PE material > either (due to length), but you can’t fault CFAI > for thinking it is an important topic. You can, > however, fault them for ruining every spring for > years on end. I disagree with that - bschool atleast hits you with the up to date stuff going on in the industry. CFA sucks at that - reference the last letter with “lets use international accounting for all of FSA”. And yes, I do think the CFA should be “sensible” about the depth of knowledge one needs on a topic. Considering half the things you learn on the job, and investment philosophy/methedologies are mostly firm-specific, I think a semi-detailed overview of the topic would suffice.
“lets use international accounting for all of FSA”. because world is going that way. “Global” is the new hip word.
cfaboston28 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Business school is for wimp. CFA teaches you real > finance. Hah, I agree. But Bschool isn’t about learning finance…
So you want to make the exam easier and less robust…that should do wonders for the clout it holds in the world. The reason it is detailed and difficult is so that it produces charterholders who actually know their sh!t, so the CFA actually holds some water. Up-to-date stuff changes, check out US Weekly. Last I checked the DDM formula hasn’t changed a ton lately.
wangta01 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > cfaboston28 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Business school is for wimp. CFA teaches you > real > > finance. > > Hah, I agree. But Bschool isn’t about learning > finance… True. So don’t expect that you will learn things in-depth on anything in B-school. It is like little of everything and then networking and career services dept.
tvPM Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > So you want to make the exam easier and less > robust…that should do wonders for the clout it > holds in the world. The reason it is detailed and > difficult is so that it produces charterholders > who actually know their sh!t, so the CFA actually > holds some water. > > Up-to-date stuff changes, check out US Weekly. > Last I checked the DDM formula hasn’t changed a > ton lately. I’m sure you get what I’m saying…robustness is good, going overboard…not good.
Insane. I started yesterday and I’m STILL trying to finish this reading. This had better be tested!!
yeah that reading is a fucking disaster
I remember reading through this topic in Schweser’s notes for at least three times, before I finally grasp what they are talking about. (For the first two times, I believe I fell asleep in the middle. The third time, I forced myself to push through. Going to do the forth read next week. Thanks for the reminder guys.) But I agree, this topic seems to go way overboard as comparing to the depth that is required in the other topics.
I think it’s obvious that there’s a very high probability this section will show up on the test. Of course you can’t predict what will be on. But I’ll be reviewing this section thoroughly. Just in case…
I think PE stuff is really not hard, there are a few key areas only: pros and cons, concepts of PE calculation of PE portfolio fees VC valuation PE (D/E) valuation I believe it WILL be tested on D-day, could be one single Qset