The world has exceeded 100,000 charterholders

I’m kinda interested in CAIA’s materials, but I just don’t want to sit for (or pay for) more tests…

Bchad, it’s a growing designation. If you took it, you could probably jump on the board of directors guiding the designation’s vision.

It’s a pretty fun exam. But it is expensive.

Look closely. This is 100,000 members, “more than 87% of whom are charterholders.” So one of the passing level III candidates this year will probably be the 100,000th charterholder. Right?

Meh, I don’t know if it means much, but it means something.

I had a bunch of resumes on my desk this morning. A bunch of them had a CFA in progress (violation to even say it that way I’m sure). But I take note of it, it means they are serious about finance, let’s face it, it’s a painful process. Lvl3 candidate means something to me, one guy had that. But I know lots of CFAs who are idiots, so it says something but not sure what. It just doesn’t seem like that amount of time and effort is worth the small increase in credibility. And freakin’ everyone is going for it, too many.

Anyhow the guy who knew how to make an Excel model went to the top of my list. I don’t wanna hear some newbie talk my ear off about black freakin’ scholes.

Can I apply for the job too? :slight_smile:

Can I apply for the job too. love to live in Seoul.

This is why I wish there was a practical designation that teaches what you actually need to know to work in equity research.

The CFA is supposed to be directed at research analysts (and portfolio managers), but teaches very little of what you need to know in order to perform well in an equity research job interview.

PERI could be a new designation: Professional Equity Research Interview examination.

Been saying this for a while and usually get flamed out :smiley:

CFA is useful for stuff like pension fund management and equity allocation modeling. It is NOT useful for equity research, picking stocks and bonds, performing LBO analyses (buying companies), or any of the bottom up investing that a lot of people strive for. CFA is a good primer for academic finance and top down investing, and that’s about it. Both of those are wrong and don’t work in the real world IMO.

Or how about one for private equity Professional Private Equity Enterprise Designation Call it the = PPEED

It won’t lose its prestige so long as the pass rate remains low. A lot of the new CFAs are international… they all aren’t in the U.S.

I also think just about all of the CFA material is very practical for actual investment decision making. It might not be so helpful if you are a spreadsheet monkey or trying to apply for a certain type of job.

Trust me, you guys don’t want this job, it’s in the US office, grunt work for little pay. Ha I’m going to make this person do all the stuff I don’t wanna do.

When the CFA was designed, it was designed as a mid-career professionalization, not a gateway into equity research. Indeed, many CFA takers were assumed to be experienced equity researchers (or at an equivalent stage in other asset classes), and so the curriculum is really tied into how key aspects of asset research connects to the portfolio creation process and how to design portfolios for clients.

Today you practically have people just graduating high school asking if they can sign up for Level 1. So one can redesign the exam for a more junior test-taker, I suppose, but that effectively changes what the CFA designation is.

And remember, you need 48 months of industry work experience to get the letters. During this time, you’re expected either 1) to apply your CFA knowledge in your work (if it comes after passing), or 2) apply your work experience (if obtained before the exams) to make sense of the more academic aspects of the CFA curriculum (things like how to do math and such).

On another note, I was walking through Central Park today thinking, “a beautiful spring day like this makes me SO glad I’m done with those CFA exams.” I saw some poor guy lying out with his girlfriend, nose in the books, and wished him good luck. We survivors can spot each other a mile away. :wink:

^ I hope I can be the one walking central park next year

100000 charter holders??? Is it the right no.? The CFAI official pressrelease of 23rd April 2012 regarding ‘CFAI removes uncertainity surrounding CFA exam in India’ says:

_ “…CFA Institute has more than 100,000 members, who include the world’s 90,000 CFA charterholders, in 135 countries and territories, as well as 135 affiliated professional societies in 58 countries and territories…” _

( see at http://www.cfainstitute.org/about/press/release/Pages/04232012_66112.aspx)

^ It’s clear the writer of that article grabbed a old generic description of the CFAI and put it in at the bottom of his article. Besides, his description says “has more than”

The original link I posted is the most up-to-date on the actuals.

Constituent Statistics

Number of members: 109,748

Number of Charterholders: 100,328

Interesting note: when I started this thread, the count was under 100,100, it grew by over 200people in 18 days… dang.

^ It seems so. May be more care is needed by CFAI authorities while issuing such release, after even saying ‘more than’ does not normally suggest 90,000 is actually more than 100,000!

Anyway, the number seems to be increasing almost exponentially when the increase over a short period of 18 days is seen. .

Yes this is very true. I am not to sure what CFA publication it was in, but I remember reading somewhere that there is a very large growing community of CFA candidates (and therefore charterholders) in Asia.

The tests will eventually be published in other languages, that’s when you’ll see the number of charterholders skyrocket.

that’s a lot of charterholders