If you’re reading this, you may be thinking about the CFA® designation and what it can do for your career. Or you might already be a candidate pursuing the charter.
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I am passionate about behavioral economics (behavioral finance is behavioral economics applied to finance problems; it is thus a subset of behavioral economics). I teach it in my classes and have written a book about it.
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Alternative Risk Premia (ARP) portfolios have started to supplant hedge fund investments in institutional portfolios. Perceived lower cost, better liquidity, and improved transparency have diverted assets or created new demand within the alternative space. As part of the move toward factor investing, we will discuss what ARPs are and their pros and cons for investors.
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As you go about your daily life, especially when making choices involving some sort of trade-off (exchanging money for goods and services, exchanging time for money, making investment decisions, deciding how to get the best value for money on your weekly grocery trip), you probably think of yourself as cool, calm, rational, and in control.
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We cannot predict the markets—or can we? History repeats is an old saying that proves to be true for markets! Markets, over time, follow rules which are scientifically investigated and proven. Therefore, there are three basic things that you have to consider when investing—under special consideration of a long investment horizon.
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While it certainly may feel like your entire existence is engulfed by this test for six months out of the year, it is naïve to think that the rest of the world cares or it will place itself on pause until you are less busy studying.
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I began my career in the bond market research department of a major sell-side investment bank. At that time, "Wall Street" was run by firms whose salespeople, traders, and research teams established the markets’ liquidity and dictated market prices to clients.
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Many of the CFA charterholders and candidates I have met seem to have always known that it was the path they wanted to take. Finance degree, CFA charter, job at a bigtime investment firm. It was different for me.
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As Benjamin Graham, one of the investing world’s original greats, said, “The essence of investment management is the management of risks, not the management of returns.” Regrettably, too many investors worry about the risks when it’s too late.
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The new 2025 CFA curriculum has been released for all three levels. This article will summarize all of the important changes to the curriculum and how it affects your preparation.
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From humble origins in the early 1970s, index investing has become the 800-pound gorilla of investments. First derided, then accepted as a technique, these days, money moves out of active equity management and into passive vehicles every day.
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I would like to address some of the common mistakes made by candidates during the CFA® exams and how those mistakes can be avoided so that you don’t have to go through the rigmarole of taking the exams multiple times in order to pass them—which unfortunately was the case for me. While I am not proud of the fact that I had to take the exam multiple times, and some might consider it foolish to talk about failures, I learnt much from those failures.
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Ethics is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of professionals in the financial services industry. As trusted advisors, we are given a mandate by our clients to manage, preserve, and grow their assets and to operate in their best financial interests.
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In the weird world of alternative investments, private equity is perhaps the most recognizable and most easily understood of the major asset classes. Individual investors, regardless of market experience, are generally familiar with venture capital-backed companies like Google, Facebook, Uber, and Snapchat.
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Anxious is just one of the many words that describe how I felt in the final weeks and days leading up to the CFA® exam. Fortunately, I found having a general idea of what to expect on exam day relieved some of that anxiety.
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The overall purpose of performance measurement is to help us select an investment and provide ongoing information about how our investment is doing so we can make good decisions
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On test day, it is completely natural to be excited, nervous, worried, anxious, or some combination of these states of mind.…The point I want to make is very simple: for top performance, there is an optimal level of nervous energy that is not zero, and maybe not even close to zero.
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Technology is a disruptive force that creates challenges for established business models in many industries. Job losses in manufacturing are largely attributable to advances in technology, but the impact of technology isn’t confined to manufacturing-related industries.
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It is difficult to offer advice to aspiring charterholders that is applicable to all three levels of the CFA® exam series. As you may have already discovered, each level is fairly unique. Level I and Level II are far apart in difficulty while Level II and Level III differ greatly in format.
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It sounds pretty ominous: A 300-hour study commitment over the course of four to six months, which works out to be roughly between 12.5 and 18.75 hours per week. Oh, and that 300-hour assumption is an average; any individual might need to put in considerably more effort in order to master the material well enough to pass the test.
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