So I just got my CFAI materials at the office about 20 minutes ago…all 18 pounds of it. I cracked open Book 1 just for the hell of it and saw “Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity Models” in the Contents and all I could do was close it and start laughing to myself. I might as well be learning a foreign language. I know after I settle into a routine and dive into the material all will be fine but for now I’m freaking out. Just for fun, what was the first topic you randomly opened up to when you first got your material and what was your reaction. Here’s to 4 months of fun
ARCH models were invented 25 years ago so this isn’t real cutting edge stuff. Since then we have GARCH, IGARCH, EGARCH, GARCH-M, HYGARCH, and probably a bunch of other ones. They are staples of financial modelling. So unless you want people saying “You have got to be kidding me” at job interviews, perhaps you should check this out.
I saw the humor in it. Easy Joey, he was just laughing at his initial response, you have to admit its rediculously scary word for what is most likely not that intense of a concept. Secondly, you seem stressed / touchy lately?
Black Swan, I think it’s just that venting in the forum is walking a fine line. On the one hand, we’re all in the same boat and few of our friends have a true appreciation of the time and effort we’re putting into this program. At least here in the forum you can likely relate to a few people, even if in a superficial or impersonal way. On the other hand, everyone here has to learn the same material and we’re unlikely to empathize too much. This is the CFA Program, it’s supposed to be demanding, so when someone acts all surprised that this sh- is hard, it’s like “piss off”: you knew what you signed up for… Further, JDV clearly has a high aptitude for quant and has invested considerable time and resources into his education in this area, so it must be somewhat frustrating to watch the rest of us grumbling and stumbling over this material. Finally, I know I’m guilty of harsh responses from time-to-time. I think it really comes down to the tone of people’s writing, whether they’ve taken any initiative whatsoever to answer their own questions, and the general level of my wraith at the time I’m reading a post. So, go ahead and vent, just know that some folks will tell you to suck it up (and rightfully so), even though they likely emphasize with you as well. Just my $0.02.
broodc2 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > So I just … > cracked open Book 1 just for the hell of it and > saw “Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity > Models” in the Contents and all I could do was > close it and start laughing to myself. > > I might as well be learning a foreign language. … Brood, I’m not laughing all that loud, at least not tonight. Right now I’m listening to Schweser’s on-line seminar out of LaCrosse where there was, in fact, a presentation of … Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity… in a (for me) foreign language… the slides just flashed by.
Perhaps I should have used a different title to the post… Anyway, my intention was not to vent. I haven’t even started studying L2 material yet so there’s nothing to vent about. Of course I realize the time and effort it takes to study and pass each exam (I was able to get to L2 afterall right?). I don’t expect any of you to empathize with me at all. I’d like to think I’m not foolish enough to try that on this message board because I’ve seen some people get absolutely destroyed. Maybe that’s why there are so many lurkers on here. I guess like everywhere else there’s a certain amount of politicing that goes on. I was just making an attempt, a bad attempt in hindsite, to point out the humorous side of this whole thing. I mean come on, they sent out postcards with funny phrases we’re supposed to send to family and friends warning them that we’re burrying ourselves in a hole and to not get mad at us for not speaking/interacting with them for next few months. I would have had the same reaction I had above if I voluntarilly decided to build a car engine and the first thing I saw in a manual was some random part with a huge complicated-sounding name. It may be so elementary to a mechanic (Joey), but to me it’s brand new. If you can’t find some humor in the CFA , you might be taking it TOO seriously.
broodc2 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Anyway … I haven’t > even started studying L2 material yet so there’s > nothing to vent about. … Maybe you could join me in viewing those seminars? They’re quite explanatory, I find they are very helpful in straighting things out and getting focused.
At least this time around you’ve got the experience of knowing that nothing is as bad as it appears one you go through it. I remember a couple years back (way before enrolling in the program) I flipped through a friend’s level 1 quant book and saw all of the mathematical annotation and thought there was no way in hell I could ever do it. Then when I finally signed up and read the material I quickly realized that typically, the more complicated looking equations were actually the simpler ones! I’d get a kick out of reviewing formulas on the train and imagining what people were thinking when they’d look at my notes w/ perplexed faces.
I am implementing the code to do GARCH(1,1) for now. So I guess it will help me understand what GARCH is. 
Black Swan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I saw the humor in it. > > Easy Joey, he was just laughing at his initial > response, you have to admit its rediculously scary > word for what is most likely not that intense of a > concept. Secondly, you seem stressed / touchy > lately? Sorry…
Whats wrong with this guy? Dont you have anything better to do than to sarcastically criticize these guys on a blog Joey? broodc2 - this stuff is not as bad as it first appears. Go through Multiple Regression throughly if youre weak in quant to get a base for violated assumptions (specifically - why they affect the reliability of the model and/or tests of significance) before time series. Metrics can be very straightforward if you take your time, always try to logically and objectively look at a model to see if it makes sense - its easy to lose the forest for the trees sometimes.
Leafy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Whats wrong with this guy? Dont you have anything > better to do than to sarcastically criticize these > guys on a blog Joey? Leafy, he already apologized above and this thread has worked itself out, there’s no need to antagonize the situation further. Moreover, the charterholders in the forum aren’t beyond reproach, but you better have your sh- together when you go headhunting this forum’s MVPs. Welcome to AF, but if you think this thread is rough, you haven’t seen anything yet.
ymc Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I am implementing the code to do GARCH(1,1) for > now. So I guess it will help me understand what > GARCH is. Perfect way to understand it. I never truly understand any statistical algorithm until I program it and then I always have one of those “Wait a minute…Oh now I see” moments. Certainly overkill for the CFA exam though. Edit: Actually, broader than just statistical algorithms - it applies to almost any mathematical/statistical/computer thing.
Hey Leafy, thanks for sticking up for me but yeah, this situation is already settled. Joey appologized and I really do appreciate the gesture. No harm no foul. I have been on this forum for about 8 months now and I have come to respect the advice Joey, among other AF “MVPs,” has given for multiple issues on multiple threads. There are some people on here who just don’t know how to let things go and it can get ugly. Unfortunately for them when they reach out for help later on sometimes it isn’t always given. There was simply a miscomunication with my initial post and it seems like everyone is set now. Thanks, though, for your insight into the quant material. I got between 50%-70% for L1 but I had to be towards the lower end. It was always my weaker area in studying and in practice tests. Just like in L1 forum I will probably be popping back on here when I get to the quant material for L2. It’s comforting to know that, if you have given some thought to your question before posting and you’ve exhausted the search function, there will always be people on here to help you out. I’ve only been in industy for about a year and a half but I’ve learned enough to know not to bite the hand that feeds.
No, I didn’t mean at all to criticize or enflame the situation, Joey is by far the most helpful person on the board (hope I didn’t offend anyone else, everyone is very helpful here). I was just genuinely concerned cause I’ve been snappy as h3ll myself lately, this just seems like a very stressful time of year on the job front.
I looked at the CFAI books. It only talks about GARCH in a few sentences without going into any details. I was thinking it will help me my program but I was wrong… 