so is anyone else studying for the CFA exam this summer?

[robh23]

im doing level 2

 

[Hector13]

good luck! level 2 is usually the harder of the three. are you going to use study notes?

 

[Orsorum]

I'm studying for the Series 63 and Series 65 right now. Depending on whether I get into the acctg program at my school I'll either spend the summer studying accounting/business courses, or maybe trying to get a summer job in a law firm.

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: Orsorum
I'm studying for the Series 63 and Series 65 right now. Depending on whether I get into the acctg program at my school I'll either spend the summer studying accounting/business courses, or maybe trying to get a summer job in a law firm.

have you already taken the series 7 exam?

 

[robh23]

im using schweser. im doing fin statement analysis at the moment, having an arts background i find some of their explanations to be very summary of gaap procedures. but nevermind 1300 pages is enough to go through. i was pleasantly surprised by how light quant is compared with level 1.

 

[robh23]

Originally posted by: Hector13

Originally posted by: OrsorumI'm studying for the Series 63 and Series 65 right now. Depending on whether I get into the acctg program at my school I'll either spend the summer studying accounting/business courses, or maybe trying to get a summer job in a law firm.

have you already taken the series 7 exam?

im in the uk. i think its the one for investment management of mutual funds and similar, i did the equivalent in the uk, the IMC, it took about 6 weeks of evening and weekend revision.

 

[robh23]

hector what do you do, if you dont mind me asking?

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: robh23

Originally posted by: Hector13

Originally posted by: OrsorumI'm studying for the Series 63 and Series 65 right now. Depending on whether I get into the acctg program at my school I'll either spend the summer studying accounting/business courses, or maybe trying to get a summer job in a law firm.

have you already taken the series 7 exam?

im in the uk. i think its the one for investment management of mutual funds and similar, i did the equivalent in the uk, the IMC, it took about 6 weeks of evening and weekend revision.

series 7, in the US, is the general securities representative exam. It is basically the first and most general exam you usually take before taking any of the other exams.

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: robh23
hector what do you do, if you dont mind me asking?

i work in a hedge fund & asset management (equities) group at an investment bank on wall st. How about you?

 

[robh23]

Originally posted by: Hector13

Originally posted by: robh23
hector what do you do, if you dont mind me asking?

i work in a hedge fund & asset management (equities) group at an investment bank on wall st. How about you?

just temping. i have been trying to get a junior trading/ research role on a long short fundamentals fund, buts its hard to get an interview and then its often down to personal fit. what exactly do you do?

 

[TubStain]

Robh,

How long did it take you (coming from an arts background) to study for the Level 1 exam? I'm in IT and looking to join an MBA program and career change to Finance. Was looking to study for the level 1 and take it sometime during my MBA.

Thanks

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: robh23
just temping. i have been trying to get a junior trading/ research role on a long short fundamentals fund, buts its hard to get an interview and then its often down to personal fit. what exactly do you do?

I work in portfolio management & trading.

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: TubStain
Robh,

How long did it take you (coming from an arts background) to study for the Level 1 exam? I'm in IT and looking to join an MBA program and career change to Finance. Was looking to study for the level 1 and take it sometime during my MBA.

Thanks

I obviously can't answer for Robh, but I can tell you how level 1 was for me. I came from an engineering background, so I hadn't taken accounting or much other finance crap. If you are in the same boat, you will probably end up over-studying for level 1 (which is good or bad).

Level 1 was almost entirely straigh memorization of terms and whatnot. Depending on how intense you can study on weekends, about 1 month of studying should be good (assuming full time work/school during the week). If you want to have some more free time on the weekend, you may need 2 months or so.

 

[robh23]

Originally posted by: Hector13

Originally posted by: robh23
just temping. i have been trying to get a junior trading/ research role on a long short fundamentals fund, buts its hard to get an interview and then its often down to personal fit. what exactly do you do?

I work in portfolio management & trading.

so prop trading? what stategies do you employ etc, what is your job?

i want to work on a bottom up driven hedge fund that after finding a nicely priced stock considers how the value will be unlocked and other market news and noise and macro-economic influences.

but its so hard. i interviewed at a firm's london office the other week but they took a more experienced candidate, but thats partly a fit issue, despite the role being an assitant trader to a sizeable event driven equity stat.

 

[robh23]

Originally posted by: Hector13

Originally posted by: TubStain
Robh,

How long did it take you (coming from an arts background) to study for the Level 1 exam? I'm in IT and looking to join an MBA program and career change to Finance. Was looking to study for the level 1 and take it sometime during my MBA.

Thanks

I obviously can't answer for Robh, but I can tell you how level 1 was for me. I came from an engineering background, so I hadn't taken accounting or much other finance crap. If you are in the same boat, you will probably end up over-studying for level 1 (which is good or bad).

Level 1 was almost entirely straigh memorization of terms and whatnot. Depending on how intense you can study on weekends, about 1 month of studying should be good (assuming full time work/school during the week). If you want to have some more free time on the weekend, you may need 2 months or so.

er. well im not being arrogant but im quite smart so i can study quite well. i did about 10-15 hours a week i guess for 2.5 months then revised the schweser notes for 3 weeks, then the last week did mock exams, the last week was hell tho.

i got quite a good pass, but i knew the stuff. my average mock mark was over 82%

to pass you need 70% of the average mark for the top 1% of scorers in your exam, so maybe 65% or so - but aim higher.

it kind of depends on how academic you are, the people i knew who has years of expereince but weak intellectual ability didnt do so well, people like me with zero exp, but quite good academics did a bit better.

the IMC was a good prep its about 500 pages of similar study for the uk investment management reg exam.

you could also look at AIMA's CAIA designation. But i cant see how hedge funds and PE can be clumped together.

Also DO NOT assume that CFA L 1 is financial MBA L 1 - its not, you will still need to study some things, but obviously there would be a lot of over lap maybe 60-80% or something like that.

also despite having a languages background, i did graduate 2 years before, and i have read many business and investing books previously so i was versed superficially in many areas like economics and accounting.

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: robh23
so prop trading? what stategies do you employ etc, what is your job?

no, not prop trading. Like I mentioned above, we are in asset management -- we manage money for our clients only (though our firm definitely has prop trading groups too).

our strategies our purely quant driven. And my job is portfolio management (can't describe it any other way).

i want to work on a bottom up driven hedge fund that after finding a nicely priced stock considers how the value will be unlocked and other market news and noise and macro-economic influences.

but its so hard. i interviewed at a firm's london office the other week but they took a more experienced candidate, but thats partly a fit issue, despite the role being an assitant trader to a sizeable event driven equity stat.

finding a job in finance has been tough lately.. have you been looking in the UK only?

 

[robh23]

Originally posted by: Hector13

Originally posted by: robh23
so prop trading? what stategies do you employ etc, what is your job?

no, not prop trading. Like I mentioned above, we are in asset management -- we manage money for our clients only (though our firm definitely has prop trading groups too).

our strategies our purely quant driven. And my job is portfolio management (can't describe it any other way).

i want to work on a bottom up driven hedge fund that after finding a nicely priced stock considers how the value will be unlocked and other market news and noise and macro-economic influences.

but its so hard. i interviewed at a firm's london office the other week but they took a more experienced candidate, but thats partly a fit issue, despite the role being an assitant trader to a sizeable event driven equity stat.

finding a job in finance has been tough lately.. have you been looking in the UK only?

im not really in a position to relocate at this stage, unless its cape town. the only other place worth its salt is america and a visa is nigh on impossible anyway without sponsorship. does bloomberg have a cv page or somethinglike that? or can you see hedge fund nav's on it and gettheir contact details? finding these firms is very difficult.

so its not a fof, you just do managed accounts. is it macro or some trend analysis, or arb?