Why is it wrong to use "CFA" as a noun?

Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder sounds really silly, not to mention redundant, and is confusing even to people who write about the industry – i.e., WSJ, NYT, and The Economist.

If the CFA actually gave someone a license to “practice” a particular profession (like a CPA, Series 7, or passing the bar), you could use it as a noun. Otherwise this wonderful “charter” is just a credential that, while impressive, doesn’t license one to practice anything unique. (And I’m a fund manager.)

guess it means one can lose his charter if behaves unappropriately

guess it means one can lose his charter if behaves unappropriately

You aren’t “chartered” in the conventional sense - like an accountant or engineer. Technically the CFA Institute (AIMR as was) have a “charterholder” class of membership - this is just marketing speak though. This is why in the UK the CFA Institute were refused the right to trademark the “Chartered Financial Analyst” logo. http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-decisionmaking/t-challenge/t-challenge-decision-results/o31506.pdf Obviously this sleight of hand doesn’t really matter any more as it the de facto standard globally, but we are left with this weird situation where we have to learn all these grammatical rules.