Pass Analyst Exams

Hit a roadblock

2012-01-25T22:16:00.001-05:00

#CFA This past weekend was kinda a lost weekend since I had my kids with me. I'm SOOOOOOO glad I started this month so I can figure out a routine that will work for me. The main difference between the circumstances I faced during L's 1 and 2 and now is that my job is way more demanding in terms of time, my kids are grown up now and want to be on top of me all the time, and I have a live in girlfriend who I need to devote some attention to. All these competing factors for my time make it essential that I come up with some approach to use the little free time I do have to get the study in.

I decided to go back to SS3 and review it top to bottom. Here's the approach that seems to have worked for me:

- read thru CFAI chapters and do all blue box and EOC questions. Take some high level notes in the margins.

- Watch the Schweser lecture videos on the reading right after to help conceptualize the material in a different manner. I found I can help my note taking in the margins by doing this.

- Quiz myself using QBank.

I finished SS3 tonight. Tomorrow I plan on finishing the Qbank section on SS3. Weekend is to go back to SS1 and 2 which is all Ethics and follow same approach as above. Good thing for SS1 and 2 is that I have the notes from L's 1 and 2 which will cover most of it and can easily supplement the notes.

I also plan on coming up with my study plan for the remainder of the readings. Goal is as in the past, finish initial cut by end of April and use May for review, quizzing and take mocks until I pass out.

Right now I'm not focusing too much on the essay questions and answers. I know I need to change that real soon since the morning session is what kills most candidates. Not too concerned but definitely want to have my writing approach nailed down by test time.

Once I finalize the notes from SS1-3 I'll upload.

Reading 3 Down, on to Ethics now

2012-01-17T22:08:00.001-05:00

#CFA I finished Reading 3 over the weekend. Good way to "break the ice" and get back into a study rhythm. I was able to grasp the material and now that I've actually read thru a full CFAI reading using nothing but the curriculum, I think I see why the tests wind up easier for those who follow this route. I think there are certain things you synthesize more when you use the curriculum vs a study guide. One of the reasons the readings are so long is that they repeat a lot of concepts but in different contexts. I've also been forced to take my own notes instead of relying on what someone else thinks is important.

I'm moving on to Ethics now. This should be a quick read, looks like a lot of it is the same old stuff with some extra material on the AMC at the end. I don't plan on spending too much time on Ethics for now since I can easily recall most of it from L's 1 and 2 and will definitely be reviewing in detail during the last month.

Goal for this week is to finish Ethics by the weekend and use weekend to do a more thorough review of Reading 3, updating my notes and cheatsheet. Lots of little wrinkles and things to recall that are perfect for flashcards/cheat tables. I definitely want to incorporate a review session every few readings to keep material fresh in my mind. I didn't do this for L2 and I think it hurt me a bit. Starting early this year will afford me the time to do this and still have enough review time at end.

I do need to sit down and plan out the rest of the studies to see where I'll wind up come early May. Should be done with all readings and ready for mocks, mocks, mocks and more mocks.

I definitely recommend doing Ethics and Behavioral Finance to kickstart the studies. Helps to "ease" into the studies after a layoff since it's pure reading and conceptual.

Flash Cards For Level 3

2012-01-11T12:24:00.001-05:00

#CFA This post on AnalystForum may be helpful

http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-level-iii-forum/91308004

Some flash cards put together by the community. You can check them out here

http://quizlet.com/subject/cfa-l3/

So far I like the concept and it should cut down on note taking time. I'll post later on how I plan to use these.

There's a free app if you have an iphone/ipad called A+ Flashcards Pro which you can sync up to your account on Quizlet.com. Pretty sweet.

Reading 7 Down

2012-01-10T22:17:00.001-05:00

#CFA Finished Reading 7 on Behavioral Finance tonight using only the CFAI material. Wow, very dry and boring, almost fell asleep reading it. Was reminded why the study guides help on topics like this since they distill the words down to what you really need to know. Still plan on using Schweser as supplemental material not my main study. Let's see how long I can last at that.

Kinda flubbed the end of chapter item set. Only got 2/6.

My approach was to read the material and as I went along take notes in the whitespace on the left and right of the wording. This slowed me down a lot as for whatever reason it takes me forever to write these days. I guess when you're on the computer all day everyday you forget how to write.

Goal is to finish Readings 7 and 8 this week. Still trying to figure out best way to take notes for later review.

Level 3 Studies Start This Week

2012-01-08T21:07:00.001-05:00

#CFA Decided to hop on the study train this week. Don't have an exact approach yet, just want to break the rust and get into the mode again. I figure it'll take me at least a week to figure out how to attack this. I actually started late last week but it was cursory reading at best.

Going to start with Study Session 3 and knock that out this week. Figure I can always get the Ethics part down since I've seen it two times already. I wanted to start with something new to kickstart my interest level.

Behavioral Finance seems like a interesting topic, especially since I've always thought the traditional finance topics were a bit too simplistic with the assumptions.

Approach will be to use CFAI Curriculum and supplement with Schweser material. Will definitely take major notes around all in chapter examples and end of chapter questions so I can review later on. Think I made a mistake in skipping the examples in the past.

Let's go!!!!!!

Schweser acquired Stalla

2011-12-05T14:59:00.001-05:00

Here's text of email I just received. Looks like there will be NO Stalla options for the 2012 exam cycle and you're stuck with Schweser next year. No big deal for me since I wasn't budgeting to spend $$ on Stalla this year anyway but could impact those that swear by them. I'm using the curriculum mostly and will supplement with other materials I find.

*** Start of Email ***

Dear CFA Candidate:

Stalla Seminars began business in 1972 under the direction of Robert Stalla with the sole objective of helping candidates pass the CFA^® exams and become charterholders. The Stalla brand is known worldwide for quality, service, and support.

On December 2, 2011, DeVry, Inc. - Stalla's parent company - announced the sale of Stalla's assets to the Schweser Study Program - an operating unit of the Kaplan University School of Professional and Continuing Education.

Unfortunately, the timing of this transaction will not allow for the transfer of content from the DeVry technology platform to a new delivery mechanism in time for the June 2012 CFA exams. Therefore, Stalla courses and materials will not be available for the June 2012 exam cycle.

We pledge to be good stewards of the Stalla brand and mission, and intend to redeploy the Stalla content on a new platform for the 2013 exam cycle. In the interim, Schweser stands ready to meet all of your 2012 CFA study needs. If you are a previous Stalla student, we will be reaching out to you directly by phone, letter or email over the coming weeks to provide you with personalized service and assist you with this transition. Please click herefor more information about 2012 CFA review options.

As a Charterholder, I am grateful for the service that Stalla has provided to CFA candidates throughout the years, and am humbled by the weight of the commitment that we now carry to ensure that the Stalla legacy is fostered and protected. Schweser and Stalla share a common mission - to help CFA candidates succeed and to support investment professionals worldwide. I hope you share my enthusiasm for this change and wish you all the best for the 2012 CFA exams.

Best Regards,

Dr. Andrew Temte, CFA
President
Kaplan University School of Professional and Continuing Education

*** End of Email ***

2012 CFA Level 3 Changes from 2011

2011-10-01T21:53:00.001-04:00

This link will help in determining changes. Can help when using 2011 material that hasn't changed.

http://www.finquiz.com/cfa_level_3_curriculum_changes_2011_2012

I finally moved into Finance

2011-08-22T18:46:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone. Long time since I updated the blog. Many of you found out your passing/failing status by now. For those who passed, congratulations, you worked hard for this so enjoy the accomplishment and it is an accomplishment no matter what level you are. For those who failed, keep your head up and eyes focused on the goal. Many people walking around with the CFA letters on their business card failed one or more of these exams one or more times. No one cares how many times it takes you, just stay with it. Think about what you could have done better and make sure you implement it for next time.

As for me, I finally changed my career into Finance. I moved into a Financial Planning and Analysis role on the Corp Finance side of the house. I'm responsible for a $85M worldwide CapEx budget and I'm also in charge of preparing the monthly preview and closing decks for the CFO. It's been pretty much a whirlwind experience since I started end of June, longer hours and it's taken some time to get out of the IT mindset and re-calibrate myself for how things are done on the finance side.

I've already learned a ton this past month and a half and working on the front end of the business has been really illuminating. I have also used a lot of my CFA training, specifically on the Corp Finance side. Evaluating projects using MIRR and NPV, etc. I'm also in charge of reporting the FX impact on EBITDA(how we measure performance) to get a gauge on how much our performance is driven by operational efficiency vs pure FX movements. We're about to start our budgeting season now so I'll be in the mix of that too.

I still want to move into the Capital Market stuff in Treasury but for now there isn't much going on there. For those who want to know how I pulled this off, I work for a company that was recently taken private and is going much internal change. I had been supporting the Treasury team from IT and got in good with the Treasurer and Treasury manager. I mentioned to the manager I wanted to slide into his team should something open up and when something opened up on the Planning team that also reports to the Treasurer they asked me to come over. Best part? No paycut at all. One of my fears was that I would have to take a cut to make a move and depending on how much I wouldn't be able to afford it.

My IT background actually helped me out a bit since there's a push to rationalize our reporting systems(we use SAP, Hyperion and Oracle Financials) which is right up my alley and my connections on the IT side have helped move things along as well. For all of you who work in IT and think it's an uphill battle to switch careers, my response is simple: it is. But, if you have the right connections, the right luck, and the background you can make it too. In my case the CFA progress I made was the clincher. All of these guys are jealous that I'm one test away from obtaining the charter and were impressed that I pursued it without even having experience.

So keep the faith fellas. No I'm not working for a hedge fund or mutual fund. Truth be told, I actually like the fact that our Treasury guys have Wall St working for them not vice versa. There are mutliple paths for CFA charterholders and not every one is on the Wall St track. While I still have the goal of working in capital markets beggars cannot be choosers and this is a nice way to break in.

I'm definitely going for Level 3 next year to wrap this up finally. Still considering the CTP as well for later this year.

Passed SAP FI Certification Exam

2011-05-18T11:28:00.001-04:00

Another one down. As I mentioned in a previous post, I passed the SAP Certified Application Professional - Financial Accounting exam yesterday. Scored a 75% which means I got 60 out of 80 questions right.

Here's the breakdown of exam questions by area and my score in each section.

Asset Accounting/Investment Management - 6 - 66%

Accounts Payable - 6 - 66%

Business Process/Integration - 6 - 83%

SAP Business Warehouse - 5 - 60%

Accounts Receivable - 6 - 66%

New GL - 7 - 85%

GL - 4 - 100%

Basics of ABAP/Forms - 5 - 80%

Data Model /Tables/Interfaces - 5 - 60%

Basics of Authorization and Audit Requirements - 5 - 100%

Cash Management - 5 - 80%

Fundamental Business Knowledge - 6 - 66%

SAP Financials Portfolio - 5 - 60%

Financial Closing - 5 - 100%

Here's a breakdown of the exam as I remember it and some tips. I can't give specific questions or answers obviously:

- Most should know this, but this only covers the FI portion of SAP FI/CO. The CO(Controlling) module is tested separately. I work mostly on the Financial Accounting/Treasury side so this is fine for me. Will go for CO certification next year.

- Wrote exam in a PearsonVUE center in North Miami. Had room to myself after 1st hour, guy next to me was taking another non-IT certification. Definitely not the most ideal environment, but quiet enough to focus. You get a computer to work on and an eraseable board with eraseable marker so you can take notes etc. This is how I was able to remember the exam question breakdown.

- 32 of the 80 questions were multi-choice. For questions with 5 possible choices, you had to choose 3 right answers, for those with 4 possible choices you had to choose 2 right answers. This was higher than I expected and I bet most I got wrong were multi choice where I got one choice wrong which means the whole question was marked wrong.

- I finished in an hour after my first pass. Spent next 2 reviewing answers and trying to memorize questions in case i failed and needed to take again.

- Overall level of difficulty I would say was medium. None of the questions were hard if you've worked with the product before. Most of the time I could easily eliminate obviously wrong answers and work with a smaller subset of answers.

- Was a bit more detailed in areas than I expected however. Some of the questions required detailed application knowledge i.e how you would use this in a real life situation, what if you got this error, what does it mean, what would you recommend to your client in this case type of questions. This exam is really designed for consultants and not end users. This is not an exam you can just memorize information on and pass. That's the associate level exam which is designed for people right out of training with little application knowledge. Of course, you can't answer the application questions if you don't have the foundational knowledge.

- Definitely focus on the syllabus I linked to before. Here you go

- If you have a technical background in SAP like I do, the sections on ABAP/Forms/Authorization model will be easy for you. They make up a quarter of the exam giving you some breathing room in other sections.

- If you also have any SD or MM knowledge it will help you a lot on the integration questions. I have worked in both and understand the touchpoints. Pure FI/CO folks who work in a silo may have issues.

- In terms of study material, use TFIN50 and TFIN52, or if you can find the material listed in the syllabus, use those. The TFIN courses summarize the information from the other more detailed courses. I used a combination of both.

- Find mock exams online if you can. Be careful when quizzing using these as some of the questions are poorly worded and the answer keys can have mistakes. I will link to some resources I used at the end.

- As I did with my CFA studies, try to broaden your studies to beyond just what's in the book. Look up YouTube videos on areas you may not be familar with. Find SAP FI/CO books and read the sections where you didn't exactly understand the coursework. I highly recommend this approach. I had to read Asset Accounting a few times to really get it and then once I read another book on it, it just clicked.

- Use the Internet to your advantage. Google specific terms or concepts you don't understand. There is a lot of knowledge out there around SAP and you may find an explanation that makes more sense than what you read in the book.

- Use OSS if you have access. If you don't know what this is, you probably are not ready to take this exam. There will be questions that refer to issues documented in OSS notes.

Some resources I used:

- Online mock exams from Daypo.net. Go here and search for FICO

- Some sample questions here. Only issue is no answer key.

- My notes and some other files that may be useful are located here. Contact me if this link is not valid anymore.

Please do not contact me for specific questions or answers, I cannot disclose those without exposing myself to potential trouble.

I hope this information helps others. My plan for rest of year is to take summer off before ramping up for CTP examination in fall then one more time on the CFA roller coaster to wrap up Level 3 next year. By end of 2012 I want to have the following on my resume:

- CFA Charterholder

- Certified Treasury Professional

- SAP Certified Application Professional - Financial Accounting

- SAP Certified Application Professional - Management Accounting

Valuing Interest Rate Caps

2011-04-19T13:29:00.001-04:00

Figured I would post an update on the type of work I'm doing now. As I mentioned before I'm supporting a corporate Treasury department and recently we ran into a valuation issue with a IR Cap we put on to hedge some IR risk for our floating debt. Right now the value the system is calculating for the NPV is way off from what Bloomberg calculates and what the bank is valuing the cap at as end of March. It's off pretty significantly actually and we don't know why exactly. This is important as it opens us up for an audit deep dive into how the system is valuing these instruments. This is only an issue with this specific cap so it's most likely a data issue.

There's no way I could have even begun to understand this issue without the CFA curriculum. If you recall IR caps from derivatives(I know, your favorite subject), you'll remember that a IR cap is essentially a call option on an interest rate. You pay a premium to a dealer(investment bank typically) and in turn you receive payments whenever the reference interest rate goes above the strike price. IR Caps are usually structured as a series of caplets, each with expiration dates corresponding to the payments to be made on the instrument you're hedging(in this case floating debt payments). They are used typically to place a ceiling on your floating debt payments and for companies with less than a sterling credit rating, are usually one of the few options available to you to hedge your floating debt exposure. Swaps typically require better credit history.

IR Caps are valued using the Black-Scholes model typically. I won't go into the gory details here.

This is as close as I've come to actually using the material in real life, excluding some of the basic accounting knowledge I've had to use from time to time. The great thing is, I can actually speak to these guys intelligently vs the deer in the headlights look that most IT people give them when trying to explain this.

SAP FI/CO Certification

2011-04-12T09:59:00.001-04:00

I haven't updated in a while, mostly because I'm not going for Level 3 this year. I changed my plans a bit and will be doing it next year. I also put the PMP on pause for now. I can pick that up at a later time.

In the meantime, I decided it would be a good move for where I'm at in my career to pursue the SAP FI/CO Certified Application Professional certification.

You can find out more about this certification here

You can take the exam for 50% off the $750 cost by using coupon code 11CERTQ2 when you register with PearsonVue. PearsonVUE also gives the GMAT exam I believe.

Check the Competency Areas tab for more information on what is tested.

This exam is "technical" in nature in that it's testing your knowledge of what needs to be done in the system to meet business requirements but in this module you can only do this if you also understand the functional issues at play here.

While this is an IT oriented test, in my travels I've found many former CPA's and finance folks have moved into IT and used this to get familiar with the module and demonstrate competence. SAP is in many places and is now starting to break into banks and financial firms. Bank of America is currently going thru a huge implementation of SAP and many banks are waiting to see how that shakes out before they take the plunge. I feel having this certification along with the CTP and CFA charter positions me perfectly for future opportunities.

I haven't forgotten the update to the Secret Sauce for Level 2. It's on my todo list and will definitely be done before May as May is crunch time for everyone taking the June exam.

I hope studying is going well for everyone.

No #CFA Level 3 for me this year

2011-02-10T21:08:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I posted something so here's an update. I decided to take this year off from the CFA. Will focus on obtaining the PMP, CTP(Certified Treasury Professional), and get certified in SAP Finance module(the system Ive been working with). A couple of reasons for this:

- can get 3 certifications this year

- started a new job that has me supporting the Treasury department. About as close as I've ever been to stuff I've learned in the CFA curriculum. Pretty cool to work with Interest Rate Caps, Forward, cash flow hedges, etc. My background has helped me tremendously when speaking to the business users I support.

- just couldn't brutalize myself for another 4 months. Will pick it up next year.

- I'm realizing I can carve out a very nice niche for myself if I go this route. Not too many folks can do both the IT side and the Finance/Accounting side so having these skills will position me well going forward.

I need to get going on updating the Secret Sauce for Level 2 which I will begin shortly since some of you should be ramping up on your studies now. This is around the time I started last year so now would be a good time to update the document.

Won't be registering for CFA Level 3 today

2010-09-22T19:31:00.000-04:00

#CFA Yeah I know, it'll cost an extra $90 but given my workload and taking this PMP exam, I want to wait until end of year before committing myself to another hellish 4-5 months. I'll have a better idea what my schedule may look like for next year and whether I can realistically put in the same effort to pass. I'm still leaning very heavily towards reupping but I felt an extra $90 was a nice hedge in case I can't commit next year.

Chapters 1-3

2010-09-15T23:00:00.001-04:00

#PMP This week I have covered Chapters 1-3 of the PMBOK using Rita Mulcahy's guide.

Chapter 1 is an introduction

Chapter 2 covers the Project Life Cycle and Organization

Chapter 3 is Project Management Processes

These are the foundational chapters and help to glue the material from the remaining chapters together. I quizzed myself on chapters 2-3 and have been consistently scoring over 80%. This material is "Easy" in the sense that a lot of it is common sense with some terminology sprinkled in. Plan for rest of week is to read the actual PMBOK chapters and also complete some PDU's towards the 35 hour requirement.

The PMP Exam

2010-09-14T16:13:00.001-04:00

#PMP Most people who follow my blog probably are not as familiar with the PMP designation so I figured I would put up some information on it. The PMP designation stands for Project Management Professional and is the most desirable designation for people who practice project management across industries. It is especially well regarded in the IT and Engineering/Construction industries. The link below has more details on it:

PMP Information

In order to qualify for the designation you must pass a 200 question 4 hour exam with a passing grade of 61% in addition to having at least 3 years and 4500 hours of managing project tasks. You must also have 35 PDU hours(Professional Development Units) which typically come from some form of in class and/or virtual training.

I qualify because I have the requisite PM work experience hours and I will be able to get the PDU hours via PMI approved training via my consulting firm.

PMP Exam Format

The PMP exam is designed to objectively assess and measure project management knowledge. Concepts covered in the PMP exam are directly derived from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) Guide. The PMBOK® Guide is an internationally recognized standard (IEEE Std 1490-2003) which outlines project management fundamentals; and is applicable to a wide range of industries.

There are 200 total multiple choice questions which make up the PMP exam

25 randomly placed "pre-test questions" are included, and do not count towards the pass/fail determination

Individuals have 4 hours to complete the exam

Individuals must score 61% or higher to pass the exam (106 of 175 questions)

The nine PMBOK® Knowledge Areas contain a total of 42 processes which are applied to five basic process groups. These five basic process groups, which are common across all projects, are listed below along with the percentage of questions one should expect on the PMP exam:

Initiating (11%)

Planning (23%)

Executing (27%)

Controlling and Monitoring (21%)

Closing (9%)

Questions regarding Professional and Social Responsibility make up 9% of the exam

The PMBOK itself is 12 chapters covering the above material. I will be using it and Rita Mulcahy's PMP Exam Prep as my guide. I also purchased the Flashcards and the Exam Simulation Software also found on the same page.

Compared to the CFA, the material is easier, especially if you have any experience with project management. I would compare most of the material so far(only read 3 chapters) to Ethics in the CFA material. Lots of grey areas where you need to understand how PMI expects you to behave vs how you would behave on your own. Having lots of hands on experience doing this stuff for a living either directly or indirectly helps a lot as well but you need to be careful to answer questions using the PMI methodology, not your own common sense. I expect to do 1-2 chapters a week which should have me wrapping up the studies by November. I want to finish this up before year end, take the holidays to re-energize myself and then go hard for the Level 3 which will be quite a bear. I will not have the conducive environment I had for Levels 1 and 2 since I now travel for work and typically work 50 hours a week plus travel time. I'm debating whether I'm going to do it next year but I'm so close to finishing I might as well wrap it up as soon as I can.

Going to go for PMP

2010-09-13T11:53:00.001-04:00

#PMP I decided to pursue the PMP(Project Management Professional) designation this fall and push Level 3 off until next year. A few reasons for this:

- PMP would be a huge boost to my current career. I've been acting as a project manager informally anyway. It will act as a hedge for me if I the career move doesn't pan out. Having PM experience is always a plus, no matter what industry you're in.

- PMP would also assist when I'm looking to transition into finance

- I think I can pass the exam in the fall which would leave me enough time to still try for Level 3 in June.

This is ambitious but I think it's doable. I can't imagine the PMP exam will be anywhere near as tough as the CFA exams have been and having that background should allow me to approach my studies in the same way. I do need to sleep on whether I should register for the Level 3 exam before the 9/22 deadline.

I will be posting my experience with the studies for that exam. The goal is to pass it in December before Christmas which I think is very doable. I plan on starting this week so I will post my experiences along with some background information on the PMP exam.

Great FT Article on #CFA Designation

2010-08-13T19:56:00.001-04:00

Hat tip to Larry Allen for the link via Twitter

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/57468694-a5b1-11df-a5b7-00144feabdc0.html

Enjoy!

My "Secret Sauce"

2010-08-09T17:56:00.002-04:00

#CFA The link was taken down from Scribd.com most likely due to Schweser requesting it. Here's an updated one since several have requested it. I'm going to rename it eventually:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V44U22HV

Once I add an update for Level 2 I will find a more permanent place for the document.

New Standards of Professional Conduct

2010-08-09T17:56:00.001-04:00

#CFA This came out. Make it required reading no matter what Level you are on. I don't klnow if they introduced any new wrinkles but if they did, I'd bet you see them on the next exam.

https://www.cfainstitute.org/learning/products/publications/ccb/Pages/ccb.v2010.n2.1.aspx#

Allen Resources Test Bank

2010-08-03T12:55:00.003-04:00

#CFA They sent me this email, you can download their test bank for free

http://www.allenresources.com/tbdemo.php

It uses AIR(Adobe product) for the installation. TweetDeck uses the same thing.

So far seems like a solid product and worth checking out.

Level 3 Changes from 2010

2010-07-29T00:15:00.001-04:00

#CFA Here's a good link with the changes in curriculum:

http://www.finquiz.com/cfa_level_3_curriculum_changes_2010_2011

Doesn't look like much changed from 2010. I didn't register just yet, probably won't get serious about studying for another month. I will use the 2010 version of the Secret Sauce for L3 and read thru that before I start to dive in deep. I also decided to spring the extra $60 for the books, I don't trust myself to use Ebooks for this.

Excited to get going,

Level 3 Registration

2010-07-27T09:41:00.003-04:00

Registration is available:

https://www.cfainstitute.org/mycfa/candidate/aboutexams/Pages/cfa_program_and_exam_fee_schedule.aspx?intCamp=june2011_regist_mycfa

You will need to login first. Below is fee schedule. I'll definitely be registering before 9/22 the only question is which option to choose. I plan on using the CFAI material more this year, so I would like the books in print. Then again, saving $60 to get the ebooks only is a decent deal and I could put that difference towards the Stalla curriculum. I'll probably wind up going with the print only option just so I have the books. I will be listing all of my Level 1 and Level 2 curriculum on Ebay for sale which should help defray the costs a bit.

This sounds sick, but I'm already excited to get going on the Level 3 studies.

Payment deadlines	CFA exam registration	Curriculum options^‡ (details below)	Total cost
22 September	$630	+ eBook only	$590
		+ print only	$650
		+ eBook and print	$680

16 February	$720	+ eBook only	$680
		+ print only	$740
		+ eBook and print	$770

16 March	$970	+ eBook only	$930
		+ print only	$990
		+ eBook and print

Whew.....

2010-07-27T00:13:00.003-04:00

Still can't believe I passed, it's almost surreal. I'm just so excited to have passed this Level 2 exam. I'm already itching for Level 3, so much so I already started reading the 2010 Level 3 Secret Sauce to get a head start. I'm not leaving anything to chance this time, I will pass all 3 levels on my first try. I want to walk out with a lot more confidence than I had this past exam. I still don't know how I pulled it off, I obviously was strong in Equity, a strong area I had going into the exam and I must have done well enough on the other sections to eke out a passing score.

I'm just feeling really good right now about the direction I'm headed in. Hard work pays off and it did in this case. On to the next one!!

I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-07-26T10:50:00.002-04:00

The level of elation I feel right now is INDESCRIBABLE. I tried to put up a good front, but inside I really felt like I failed. I saw the email in my inbox when I got to work this morning, took a deep breath, readied myself for the "Fail". Funny thing is I skipped past that part to look my score distribution and I was sure it was a failing grade. I had to look 3x to make sure I wasn't reading incorrectly. Whew, I'm SO GLAD I GOT PAST THIS HURDLE!!!!!!

The MPS had to be in the lower 60's this year. That derivative score was strictly based on guesses as I was clueless for most of those questions. The rest of the scores seem about right, that AI section caught me off guard and obviously my guesses were wrong.

I'm walking on air right now, I can't take my real job too seriously today. More to come later on

Your results for the June 2010 Level II CFA exam are below. The pass rate for June 2010 Level II was 39%. If you have questions or comments, please contact us.

Level II: Pass

The table below illustrates your subject matter strengths and weaknesses. The three columns on the right are marked with asterisks to indicate your performance on each question or topic area.

Item Set
Q#	Topic	Max Pts	<=50%	51%-70%	>70%
-	Alternative Investments	18	*	-	-
-	Corporate Finance	36	-	-	*
-	Derivatives	36	-	-	*
-	Economics	18	-	*	-
-	Equity Investments	72	-	-	*
-	Ethical & Professional Standards	36	-	*	-
-	Financial Reporting & Analysis	72	-	*	-
-	Fixed Income Investments	36	-	*	-
-	Portfolio Management	18	-	-	*
-	Quantitative Methods	18	-	*	-

Results Day Tomorrow

2010-07-25T21:46:00.001-04:00

Well, tomorrow we all find out the results from L2. I haven't given it much thought and won't until I see the email in my inbox. As I said right after the test, I'm 50/50 on passing with a lean towards fail but we'll see for sure tomorrow. Either way, I'm more determined than ever to finish this journey.

Let me know how you did, I'll have a post up at some point this week.

Now that I've had time to reflect on L2

2010-06-05T17:55:00.002-04:00

#CFA I had to take the last 2 weeks off from all things CFA. Not only did my kids deserve it my own sanity did.

I made the mistake of visiting Analystforum where people just don't seem to have any regard for talking about specific exam content and answers. Confirmed some of what I got right but also some of what I got wrong. I'm still 50/50 on passing, but I'm leaning towards just missing the mark. I'd rather approach the results that way vs being supremely confident like I was for L1 and then being disappointed. I'm already mentally prepping myself for retaking the exam next year.

I said in my first posting right after the exam that I couldn't see how anyone could pass using only the CFAI curriculum. I now regret that statement. I think those who used only the curriculum had a leg up on those who used only Schweser and/or Stalla. I used a combination but I didn't use the actual CFAI reading whatsoever and it seems some of the exam questions covered stuff directly in the text. I definitely learned my lesson, I think it's a must to use the CFAI material as your core study material and use Schweser/Stalla to fill in the blanks and for extra questions.

Recapping the actual exam experience, the morning session was much harder and that seems to be the consensus. I had several F&*K moments within the first hour as what I thought were simple questions turned out to be more intensive than I planned for. I did not anticipate so much quantitative material and some of the questions would take more than 3 mins to compute. I was able to finish a first pass in 2 hours but that was mostly due to guessing on questions I had no clue on and just moving on.

PM was much "easier" but no cakewalk either. If I do pass, it will be PM that puts me over the top. I thought Ethics in both sessions was the "easiest" section but if the AF forums are right I did get some questions wrong so we'll see if there is an Ethics adjustment. I was surprised at how much trivial pursuit material was on the exam. I understand a few questions here and there to keep us honest but the level of detail they seemed to want us to know 2-3 levels deep just seemed unfair at times, especially given the amount of "core" material there was to master.

Two areas where I was weak going into the exam came back to bite me big time. The harder FRA material and Derivatives. I didn't go all the way with the FRA stuff, things like goodwill, how to incorporate if stock vs cash is used to acquire company, etc. I stuck with the basics figuring I could get by mostly with that. Uh uh. Derivatives I'm really upset about, none of that material is really that hard, it's just so much to keep track of and I made the mistake of not devoting more time to it. I also didn't pay much attention to the new section they added to the L2 curriculum in 2010 which was Private Equity. Of course there was a whole item set on it. Big boo to Stalla for not covering that at all on their mocks. I don't recall if Schweser covered that at all either.

Overall I thought Stalla did a good job, Peter Olinto did touch upon a lot of the finer nuances I just glazed over for FRA. I regret not reviewing the CFAI texts for some of the trivial pursuit material and also not going thru the examples in the text thoroughly. It seems that there were examples that if you understood them during studying, you would have breezed thru the exam. Schweser's Secret Sauce was almost worthless. Sure it reviews the high level stuff but the detail at which they test on the real exam requires MUCH more than what you get from it. Secret Sauce was almost enough to pass L1 alone but nowhere close for L2. It does have value so worthless is a strong term but be careful when using it extensively.

I think the test was fair and I now understand the level the exam writers wanted candidates to be at if they were to pass. I was at this level in certain sections(Quant, Ethics) but not at others (FRA, Fixed Income). We'll find out in August if I was fortunate enough to scrape by this Level. If not, I've already decided I'm retaking it next year. Some changes I will make next time around:

1) Start earlier. In the fall.

2) Progress Tests every 4 SS. I regret not doing this, I had to basically re-study the first 8 study sessions which then caused me to forget the later material. Need to keep stuff fresh in your mind.

3) CFAI material will be focal point for studies. When unclear, go to Stalla guides and lectures. But if I don't understand every single EOC question and example in the text, I'm not ready for the exam.

I'm tempted to look at material to get a head start for next year but I'm taking next two months off to myself. I did look thru an old mock exam and I recall most of the stuff so I don't think I'll lose too much. Once the results come out, whether pass or fail I'm starting super early this time.

I'll take a hiatus from posting for a while, probably until the results come out.

Happy Father's Day to everyone!!!

First L2 Thoughts

2010-06-05T17:55:00.001-04:00

#CFA Obviously I can't speak on specific content on exam but my overall reaction?

WOW

Much harder than I thought it would be. LOTS of trivial pursuit material I paid no mind to. Kicking myself for ignoring certain stuff I should have known was going to be tested more.

I have a sneaky suspicion this is due to the abnormally high pass rate in L1 a year ago. I had a feeling that was going to make this exam more difficult. They did it with the L1 exam in December and carried it over to L2 this year.

A combination of some intelligent guessing, luck, pulling a few questions out of my rear end and Ethics adjustment should be enough to squeak me by. I'm right on the fence in terms of pass or fail. I will not be shocked either way. Gun to my head? I say I failed, I was guessing on way too much stuff and even on questions I knew the approach to, there was enough twists to maybe throw me off. I thought morning was harder than afternoon.

I still see no way anyone could pass this using just the curriculum. I mean no way at all.

Thought test was a little unfair in that in only 120 questions you would think the focus would be more on core concepts. But no excuses, if it's in the books, it's fair game.

I'ma have some words for Stalla and Schweser when I can post more.

Final Countdown

2010-06-04T19:03:00.001-04:00

#CFA Well, after 5 months of studying, a significant chunk of my free time and sanity and a couple of grey hairs later, the CFA Level 2 exam is here tomorrow. How do I feel? Well I don't know everything perfectly, but I feel like I am comfortable enough with a wide section of the material that I should be able to pass. No scratch that.

I WILL PASS THIS EXAM WITH FLYING COLORS

A lot will be based on what they ask but if they cover most of the core material and sprinkle in a little of the trivial pursuit stuff I know I'll be just fine. The hard part is what I just went thru the past 5 months and specifically the past month. Tomorrow is the easy part. Best part? It's over at 5pm EST.

The rest of tonight will just be going over the formulas, Ethics and that's it. If I don't know it cold by now I'm not going to. Plan to be in bed by 10-11am, up by 6:30. Will follow same routine I did for Level 1. Everything will be ironed tonight, I'll get a workout in, a shower a good night's rest, a small breakfast in the morning and get to the exam site with time to spare and maybe memorize some last minute formulas. I'll be bringing the formula sheets, my notes, the Stalla lecture notes and the Secret Sauce with me to review during lunch.

I posted this video the day before Level 1 and I think it's appropriate to share now as well. Fast forward to the 2 min mark. This is what we've been doing and how we've all been feeling. The Rocky movies have always been inspirational to me and that song just demands you put out your best effort. We all want to have the feeling at the end when the results come out so let's make it happen.

Another quote I heard was:

"Immortality is yours. Now take it."

YES SIR!!!!! FIRED UP AND READY TO GO!!!!

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE, WE'RE GONNA KILL THIS EXAM. ALL THREE LEVELS!!!!!

Quick Message for All #CFA Candidates

2010-06-02T19:57:00.001-04:00

#CFA I write this post with a heavy heart. I just found out the Director of my children's daycare center was in an accident and her husband, daughter and daughter's boyfriend were killed. Her youngest child is fighting for his life.

Of course, none of you know this woman or her family personally, so the reason I post this is because I wanted to give everyone a sense of perspective during this time of high stress the week of the exam. It's real easy to get all hung up and stressed out after you can't recall the subtle differences between the temporal vs all current methods, or how what adjustment to make to the financial statements, or how to calculate the price of a bond, or whatever Ethics nuance you're supposed to have memorized by now. Trust me, I've been having damn near heart attacks all week due to stupid mistakes or forgetting something I just read the day before. I've been ready to jump off my terrace at times.

But then you hear some terrible news like this and it really helps put things in perspective.

IT'S JUST NOT THAT SERIOUS. IT'S NOT. YOUR FAMILY AND LOVED ONES ARE >>>>>>>>>>>>> THIS EXAM

Yeah I know, I've been busting my tail the last two weeks, haven't left the house, started talking to the walls and my cats(seriously). I know all about the effort put into this, how important it is to your career, future growth prospects, etc. Trust me I know, I'm trying to break into the industry, change my career, and this really is my only shot. But at the end of the day, there ARE things more important than the CFA process and even more important than your career.

As sad as I am for this very nice woman who didn't deserve this tragedy, hearing about it did and does bring a certain internal peace that I've been lacking this past month and definitely this week. It reminded me that there are things far more important than this exam and pass or fail, I will be OK as long as I still have the people I love and care for close to me and breathing. I don't need to kill myself for this. And I will enjoy getting my normal life back Saturday night like you just don't know.

Didn't mean to get all mushy on you, but I hope this post helps you put things in perspective.

If you are a person of faith, please keep this woman and her family in your prayers.

What a Long Day...

2010-06-02T00:25:00.001-04:00

#CFA Oh boy, what a long day. My head hurts. I've been doing exams since this morning including both Sample Exams. I never cease to be amazed at how DENSE the material is. I must have answered somewhere north of 2000 questions between mocks, PassMaster and QBank and still they find a way to make me feel like I've never seen this stuff before. Overall I'm still scoring in the 70+ range which is good news but I still have those F&%K moments I mentioned before and I always seem to miss a question or two because I'm going way too fast. I need to figure out a way to slow down. I need a small break, my head seriously hurts right now. I think I'm going to do a review of the curriculum using the Secret Sauce, review some formulas and the exams, and then take the CFAI mock(AM/PM) Thursday. Friday will be a review of Ethics but I also want to do certain problems so I have the mechanics down for the exam. I just don't think I can afford to miss out on the easy questions because I forgot a formula or one step in the approach.

At some point during the mocks I always say to myself, how the hell does CFAI expect anyone to pass this exam using just those books? I mean like I said, I've done over 2000 questions in all varieties and I'm still intimidated by the amount of material. How can they give no questions in certain areas and expect you to answer this stuff come exam day? People do it obviously, but I just don't see how it's possible.

Problems to do in Friday. This is a partial list, I'm sure I'll come across more stuff I'll want to do at least once.

- All forward/future/swap calculations

- Currency Arbitrage and Cross Rate

- All Forex stuff from Econ

- Convertible Bonds

- Merger Value

- Real Options in Capital Budgeting

- SMM/CPR calculations in FI

- H Model

- Inflation Rate

- Tangible P/E

Time for bed...

Another Good Day

2010-05-30T23:45:00.001-04:00

#CFA Had a good day of review today. Knocked out a Schweser mock and got a 81% on the AM session. I noticed that Book 1 of Schweser seems a lot easier than Book 2 which I started last week. This is probably by design, they figure you work your way up in understanding with easier questions from Book 1 then hit you over the head in Book 2. Comments on Analystforum seem to bear this out. I'm glad I did it backwards, I want the real exam to be as easy as possible, I'd rather start off hard then work my way down. So far that approach seems to be working. Recall that lifting heavy weights analogy I used in an earlier post.

I decided to go back and do a thorough review of AI again. Glad I did, I got it down cold now so I should be fine come exam time.

Tomorrow I'm spending time on Derivatives and Portfolio Management and then I'll be done reviewing every Study Session in detail and should have no more glaring weak areas. I'll then take the CFAI samples and mocks the rest of the week leading up to the real thing Saturday. I still have some Schweser mocks but I'll probably just use the item sets for targeted review. I did this for AI, I went back and redid all the AI questions I already answered on the past mocks and used them to make sure I understood the material. This will definitely help tomorrow with Derivatives and Portfolio Management. I'll then use them to drill down on areas I'm not so confident in for other topics. I think this approach will set me up well for the real thing.

It's been tough to sit inside the house all weekend on a BEAUTIFUL Memorial Day weekend in South Florida but it's for a good cause. Sacrifices now will pay off later. At least that's what I tell myself....

One Week Away & More Mock Results

2010-05-29T18:39:00.001-04:00

#CFA One more week and this ordeal will be over. No rest for the weary though, still plenty to do and review before next Saturday. I'll catch up on rest in the coffin.

Three more mock exam sessions down

Stalla #2 PM - 71.67%

Stalla #3 AM - 68.33%

Stalla #3 PM - 76.77%

Done with the Stalla Practice Exam book. They did a great job with the mock exams, I thought they were all very fair, a good mix of material was covered and when there was overlap, it was presented in a different way. I knew they were thorough when there was a whole item set on the Graham/Dodd/Williams readings. You probably don't even remember those or glossed over them completely. Just goes to show you can get a whole item set on the most obscure material so it helps to cover it all.

Scores are now consistently over 70% which is good and I still have some work to do on weak areas like Derivatives which I haven't reviewed at all. The good news is that even on material I'm not quite sure about, I can make intelligent guesses, eliminate obviously wrong answers and narrow it down to a 50/50 shot.

The confidence is building and I'm feeling good but I know I can still do better. Tonight I'm going to review the exams in detail. I also need to start going thru the formula sheets, it's real easy to forget an easy calculation because you just can't quite recall the formula. Some are just 2nd nature(think Gordon growth) but then there are others I forget if I don't use them regularly. I definitely need to memorize all the FCFF/FCFE formulas.

I'm saving the CFAI mocks/samples for next week. I'll probably do one more complete mock from Schweser and then just select random item sets from other Schweser mocks and do them piecemeal. I'll definitely do all the Ethics item sets and also item sets on the weak areas.

Hope everyone is feeling confident right about now, still lots of time left to get ready for game time next week. Now's the time to break into the full sprint towards the finish line, leave it all on the field and throw up afterwards. :)

Stalla Exam #2 AM

2010-05-28T08:58:00.001-04:00

#CFA Got my first passing score yesterday. 46/60 for a 77%. Quite a relief to finally get over the hump, but I'm not resting on my laurels right now. I decided it would be a good time to take a break from mocks and start using the ones I've taken so far to go thru each Study Session and review weak areas. I started with Ethics last night, decided to bone up on the newer topics such as ROS and Soft Dollar Standards. I probably could have had passing scores on the earlier mocks had I done this earlier. This morning I'm going to go thru Econ and FRA using the mocks I've taken so far. Quant I feel really strong in, I've done well on all the mocks I've taken so far. Econ is hit or miss, depending on what they ask, I do well or bomb. FRA has been decent for me, but I definitely need to review the adjustment piece, I've gotten caught up on a few questions there. Also need to review the mixed ratios. This afternoon I'll take the Stalla PM session for Exam 2 and tonight I should probably get into Derivatives which I still have not dived into to any significant degree.

Dealing with the F&%k!!!!!! Moment

2010-05-27T17:11:00.001-04:00

#CFA You're probably wondering, what is the F&%k moment? You know it very well. You start taking a mock exam or quizzing yourself on a certain topic and you reach a point where there are a few questions you don't know how to answer or forget the way to approach them. You start to panic a little, thinking you already failed. If you're like me, you say "F&%K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" to yourself really loud. Maybe you're not as foul mouthed as I am, but you know EXACTLY the moment I'm referring to. I've reached it on each of the mocks I've taken, usually in the first 15-30 minutes. It could be because I forgot how to solve a problem I know is just retarded easy or because I there's a whole vignette on a topic I haven't reviewed that thoroughly. You start questioning how you've prepped, that doubt creeps into your mind, you wonder if you can pass this exam.

These moments can kill your chance at passing the exam if you don't know how to handle them. I always need to calm myself down, I'm my own worst critic and I have a tendency to get out of control during these moments. Some tips I've learned:

Take a deep breath. Do whatever it takes to calm yourself mentally without getting up since you won't be able to come exam day except for bathroom breaks. I rub my temples and the outer part of my eye socket. I found that tip online somewhere and it does work.
Talk to yourself. Yes, seriously and obviously not out loud in the exam room, but mouth words to yourself. I usually just say "Calm down, you're fine, you've already completed 1/3 of the questions in 20 minutes, you have plenty of time to get this right" or "you've worked too hard, you know this stuff, let it come to you" or my personal favorite, something I got from watching the NFL Network "Do you want to be a Hall of Famer?" The answer is always YES!!! so work thru the tough moments to get there.
Move onto a completely different vignette. The last few mocks I've done I've made it thru Econ, run into some trouble there or FRA and then I start working backwards from the end of the exam.
Don't solve every question in order unless you can. Knock out the easy ones, build up some confidence. You'll be surprised how it turns things around mentally. You'll also be surprised how it jogs your memory for some of the other questions.
Switch from quantitative to qualitative questions. From number crunching to conceptual questions. I find these easier as you can usually eliminate wrong answers right away and narrow down your choices. On computational you are forced to do calculations so if you're stuck, there isn't much you can do. Sometimes you can work backwards from each answer to check if it's right(say on a P/E ratio question) but it's a big time waster.

Hope these tips help someone else. Curious what others do to calm themselves during these tense moments. I'm sure I'm not the only one who experiences them.

Elements of IPS

2010-05-27T15:07:00.001-04:00

The #CFA Institute sent a tweet out with this document outlining what should be in the IPS. This was a section in the Portfolio Management Study Session.

Find document here

Short reading, probably worth reading in full next week right before the exam in case they throw a question or two on it.

2009 CFA South Florida Mock Results

2010-05-27T08:34:00.001-04:00

#CFA The local CFA Society of South Florida has traditionally given mock exams for all 3 levels. In 2010 they went with Schweser's mock but in 2009 they wrote up their own 60 question mock exam. Of course I didn't sit for the 2009 Level 2 exam but they were nice enough to send me a hard copy of it upon request. I decided to take it last night just to stay busy. For the most part the 2009 and 2010 Level 2 curriculum are almost identical so I figured it'd be a good idea to switch up from the Stalla/Schweser routine.

Scored a 41/60 for a 68%. I actually think I got a question right that they marked as incorrect but I'll go with the score as it stands. The exam was trying to cram in as much material into 60 questions as possible so there were a lot of those one question that's really two types of questions. You know the ones I'm talking about, two statements are made and you have to state whether one is correct, both correct, etc. All of the Ethics questions were like this which is really twelve questions crammed into 6. Did decently well on all areas. Made a few stupid mistakes that I didn't even catch when I reviewed it the 2nd time around and it's always because I don't read the damn question completely.

It's always funny to me how my complete guesses are mostly right. There are even questions I thought I had the right process down, still get the right answer, but I find out when reviewing that I was so off, I just got lucky. Maybe that's the nature of an exam where you have a 33% chance of getting it right no matter what but I would like to cut down on these as we all know how luck reverts to the mean.

I'm going to take the 2nd Stalla mock today AM and PM. Based on the results of this I'm going to put a hold on the mocks for a day and then go Study Session by Study Session and use all the questions I have answered so far and go thru any weak areas identified. This should help crystallize what areas I'm consistently strong in and where I need some extra work. Then based on the weightings I'll devote time accordingly. For example, I'm still not completely comfortable with all the international Fisher relationships, etc in Economics but I can't spend 2-3 hours trying to master it when it'll probably be a question at most on the real thing. I will spend way more time on what adjustments to make to the Financial Statements based on information given and how the temporal vs current method affect mixed ratios for sure.

Will update more later.

Schweser Mock Exam #1

2010-05-25T22:46:00.001-04:00

#CFA Decided to switch it up today and take a mock from Schweser. From what I remember during my Level 1 prep, the Schweser mocks are a step up in difficulty level than what you might be used to. My first reaction when reading thru the opening questions was "ohhhhhh boy". They really make you think thru that extra relationship or drill on a extra step you may need to perform. For example, when calculating the initial outlay on a capital project, most problems don't involve replacing an older piece of equipment. Well there was a question on it. If you don't know how to incorporate that into your calculation you're done. The vignettes are very wordy and the questions and answers are also wordy. I found my brain hurting from trying to read and comprehend exactly what was being asked. After I settled down I found the test wasn't that bad, you just need to make sure you take your time and work thru the problems methodically.

I scored a 63.3%(76/120). Got exactly 38 questions correct on each session. Again I did not go thru the exam a 2nd time and I still have some weak areas in the later material which is what pushes my score from a passing one to a failing one. 6 questions makes all the difference. When I go back thru the exam with the answers, I usually see at least 4-6 questions that I would have changed my answer to.

I decided to review Fixed Income tonight, just to cross off one of the areas I wanted to review. I'm thinking of taking a break from the mocks tomorrow to cover Derivatives and the rest of Fixed Income(mostly the trivial pursuit stuff). I want to start getting over the 70% mark on the mocks. I have a single 60 question mock from the local society from last year that I'll probably take at night but I'll leave the full 120 question ones from Stalla/Schweser until after I have covered all sessions top to bottom. Next week I want to do all of the CFAI mocks and samples and use the night time to focus on weak areas plus go thru Ethics once again top to bottom by reading the SPC, ROS, etc.

Feeling good right now, I'm starting to retain a lot, my educated guesses are good as I'm able to eliminate obviously wrong answers and even on conceptual topics I haven't covered, I'm recalling way more than I thought I would. Just gotta keep my foot on the gas for the next week and a half.

Stalla Mock Exam #1

2010-05-24T23:52:00.001-04:00

#CFA Wrote the first mock exam from Stalla this morning. I scored a 81/120 for a score of 67.5%. Better than my score on the live mock on Saturday. The good news is that on the material I'm very comfortable and familiar with(everything up to AI) I'm scoring very well. My score is being hurt by the questions on Fixed Income, AI, Derivatives and Portfolio Management where I haven't had a chance to review it one more time to solidify it. Even there my intelligent guessing is getting me at least 3 out of 6 question on an item set. Getting 3 more questions right and I have a passing score so I'm very confident of my ability to get there once I'm comfortable in all the sections. I'm also not going thru the exams 2-3 times even though I'm well within the 3 hour limit. I usually finish in 90 mins which leaves more than enough time for a good second pass to catch mistakes and rethink questions I was unsure on. I probably could have had passing scores had I done that.

For the next few days my plan is to do a Mock, AM and PM session, grade it and then review it top to bottom. This usually takes me until early evening time, and I'll then take the evening time to bone up on the stuff I need to review. Tonight I did portfolio management, tomorrow I'll do Fixed Income, Derivatives on Wednesday. By the weekend I should be completely fluent in all material. I'll probably take one of the Schweser mocks just to switch it up. I'll try the alternating approach for the next few mocks to see how it goes.

One of the benefits of only 120 questions is that you can go thru the review quickly. On Level 1, you had 240 questions to review so it took a lot more time.

Feeling good right now, things are starting to come together. Plenty of time left to shore up the weak areas and get that extra practice in.

ICAPM Review

2010-05-24T23:29:00.001-04:00

#CFA I mentioned I have a few study sessions I need to go thru again, Portfolio Management was one of them. I figured ICAPM would be on the exam, so I tried to go thru the Stalla lecture again. This stuff makes my head hurt and even though I started to get it, I still was missing something. I found these videos on YouTube which helped a lot.

Mock Exam Review

2010-05-22T23:42:00.001-04:00

#CFA Here's my recap of the live mock exam I took today. I scored 58% on the AM session and 50% on the PM session for a combined score of 54%. Obviously that wouldn't be good enough to pass the real thing but given my goals going in to the exam, it's right about where I was aiming for. With two full weeks of prep ahead of me and 15 mock and sample exams, I know I can get that score to where it needs to be come June 5th. Most of the time I recognized the concept but was hazy on the exact steps, only on very few questions was I like "ok I have no recollection of this being covered". I didn't make many "stupid" mistakes. You know the ones where when you're reviewing you smack yourself upside the head like "how could I have missed that". The two biggies were not taking the current dividend and X'ing by the growth rate before doing the rest of the calculation. I did this 2x on the exam. DOH! moments for sure.

Surprisingly I did well on Economics which I thought was a weak section. I made some educated guesses and completed guessed on the triangular arbitrage questions but got it right. I'll have that nailed down by exam time as I'm sure at least one question will be asked on it.

I definitely need to go thru Fixed Income, Derivatives and Portfolio Management again, but that's ok, even in those sections I was able to make intelligent guesses. One more pass thru it and with the mocks and I'll be fine come exam time. I definitely need to review Ethics and get the required vs recommended pieces down. I wonder if the CFAI really wants people to have these things memorized, I would think they would want to focus more on the grey areas there is no hard and fast rule for for vs stuff you can simply look up in the standards directly. That's fine though, I found my old notes from Level 1 which I will update with the relevant information for Research Objectivity Standards, Prudent Man, etc and be fine come exam time.

Some areas for review:

ratio analysis between temporal and current methods

accrual ratios

all of Fixed Income, Derivatives and PM

I felt the test was very fair. They did a good job of mixing in core concept questions yet find space to ask some of the more obscure stuff. The entire AI section was on hedge funds, for example. Only a few questions during review did I say "they're not gonna ask that on the real thing". I thought it was very well put together, you needed to have a firm grounding in the material, there wasn't many plug and chug type of questions, it seemed to require you to make that extra calculation or think thru that extra relationship. I highly recommend taking this , it's well worth it.

One other observation is that I wasn't prepared for how distracted I was initially from all the paper turning in the room. You have a 1-3 page vignette and you have to continually go back and forth between the questions and the reading. At first it was a little unnerving until I was able to tune it out. I saw a few folks with ear plugs, might be worth the investment.

They provided lunch for us, but I prepared for the real thing by bringing my own. Packed a sandwich, a banana, and brought a water and a couple of Red Bulls that I put in a small beach cooler that I left in the trunk of my car. Went back during lunch and reviewed the topics that were not on the AM session. As expected, if it wasn't on the AM session, it was on the PM session. I expect this to be the case for the real thing too.

Overall, I feel good about where I stand but I am under no illusions on how much work is left to be done. Spending tomorrow with my kids but Monday morning I'm right back at it. 2-3 mocks a day is the goal starting at 7am bright and early.

Live Mock Tomorrow

2010-05-21T23:24:00.001-04:00

#CFA Taking Schweser's live mock exam tomorrow. I'm nowhere near as prepared as I need to be to do well on it. I'm just having a real hard time retaining concepts and formulas, even ones I recently reviewed. Luckily I have the next two weeks off as I prep for the exam so I'll have nothing else to focus on. There's just SO MUCH MATERIAL to cover. Individually none of it is difficult, but when added all up it's quite daunting. It's all good though, this is why this exam separates the men from the boys and I'm definitely a man.

I'm aiming for a 50-60% thru a combination of what I do know and some smart guessing. With two full weeks left there is plenty of time to drill this stuff home to where it's 2nd nature come exam time.

I'll post a recap tomorrow after the exam.

FRA and Corp Finance Notes

2010-05-17T22:14:00.001-04:00

#CFA As promised here are my notes for these two sections. They are not comprehensive in the sense that they cover everything. I wrote them up based on what was covered in the CFAI EOC questions. Tried to focus more on the mechanics in the Corp Finance

Corp Finance Notes

FRA Notes

FRA Notes Spreadsheet

You may need to download them to view them properly vs how they appear on Scribd.

Please sanity check them for me and let me know if you notice any errors. Thanks in advance.

Heavy Duty Weekend

2010-05-16T23:02:00.001-04:00

#CFA Picked up a copy of Schweser's Secret Sauce recently. If you remember my Level 1 prep I swear by this book, it really summarizes all the key points you must have a grasp on if you want to have any chance come exam day. While I went thru SS's 1-9 I wanted to jot down areas I needed to double back to the material to make sure I get more comfortable with. I also spent most of my weekend on Corporate Finance by going thru the CFAI EOC questions. This will be a heavily tested topic, Reading 27 alone had 50 questions and each reading had at least 20. There's so much potential overlap with other topics it's a must to master this stuff. I was surprised that some of the trivial pursuit material was tested as much as it was, so I'd expect it to be on the real exam. For example, I completely glossed over the Leverage in INternational Setting stuff. Well there was a whole item set on it.

It's just a must to do these EOC questions and I'm SOOOO glad I followed this approach. There's so much material to master that you need to know where to focus and the questions really help direct you.

I've pushed out taking my first mock until later this week, I have the live Schweser mock this upcoming Saturday and I want to be as ready as I can for it since I will use it as a good barometer for my last two weeks. Tomorrow I will wrap up the Corp Finance notes I started taking and I will post them along with the FRA notes. I then plan on reviewing Equity and probably just read the Secret Sauce for Fixed Income, Alt Investments and Portfolio Management. I'll take last years Mock from the local society Friday and then try to prepare for the live mock Saturday. While I can't expect to be as prepared for it as I will be for the real thing, I still want to have given each SS a decent review so I can at least score a solid 60% or higher.

I have the last two weeks off before the exam so I'll have plenty of time to take more mocks and drill on weak areas. I think the key is mastering the mechanics to solve the quantitative questions and then hoping you understood enough of the conceptual material to get the qualitative questions correct, or at least narrow down the answers.

So much for SS7 being "easy"

2010-05-11T23:00:00.001-04:00

#CFA I must not have paid much attention the first time thru this SS. This is probably the most involved one out of all 3 SS's and there were a ton of EOC CFAI questions so you know it'll be tested hard. Looks like I'm going to spend all week on FRA but that's ok as long as I master it, way too many points here to not get this down by exam time. I'll have more updates tomorrow.

FRA 2 Review(Pensions)

2010-05-10T22:48:00.001-04:00

#CFA Covered the Pension part of SS6 tonight. Went thru it methodically and it started to click. Was able to get most of the CFAI questions right and wrap up the remaining Stalla questions on it.

CFAI EOC questions focused on

Can you use the change in option valuation assumptions to determine whether favorable/unfavorable. This is easy stuff and overlaps with Derivatives a lot.

Definitional interpretations. For example, if given a Benefit Obligation at end of year, can you translate that into the definition of PBO, vs ABO vs VBO.

How changing the assumptions or using a different value affect various line items.

Difference in reporting pension expense(income) between IFRS and US GAAP.

What adjustments should be made to the cash flow statement if any.

Calculating economic pension expense. Should be able to use both methods.

Overall feeling good about FRA so far. Will tackle SS7 tomorrow night and then take Thursday to quiz myself on all 3 SS's to see if I can put it all together. Friday, I'll probably review SS's 1-7 at a high level Friday night using Schweser's Secret Sauce and my notes and then take my first mock Saturday. This should help me see how much work I may need on the 2nd half of material which I'm hoping is not much outside of some of the mechanical pieces(how to calculate a forward rate, binomial pricing model, etc.).

FRA 2 Review

2010-05-09T22:56:00.001-04:00

#CFA Tonight I started on SS6 which includes the Pension and Multinational Operations topics. I decided to start with the Multinational Operation piece before diving into the Pension stuff. This section takes some getting used to again, it's always those little nuances you have to remember that get you if you're not careful. Based on the CFAI EOC questions the focus seems to be

Know the impact on a BS or IS item or ratio given a movement in exchange rates

Know the difference between local, functional and presentation currency and be able to use information in an item set to tell you which method to use, current or temporal

Based on the method being used, can you determine what exchange rate to use.

Know how to determine hyperinflationary environments and based on whether using GAAP or IFRS, how to account for it.

The actual CFAI questions were pretty light compared to the Stalla and Schweser ones. I took some good notes for this section which I added to my FRA notes. I basically created a table summarizing this information. Once I'm done with FRA I will share it. Tomorrow I plan on tackling the Pension stuff and wrapping that up. That could take two days as I remember it was quite a beast.

SS7 from what I remember was comparatively light in comparison to SS5 and 6. I'm going to get thru SS7 before I do my first mock this week. I really want to nail FRA as between that and Ethics it's about 25-35% of the exam. Combined with Equity and Corp Finance, now we're at 50-80% of the entire exam and I consider those to be strong areas of mine. Throw in Quant where I'm strong and some of the other sections where I know I can do well in, and I'm in good shape if I can own this enough. None of this is hard at all, it's just a matter of getting all the little tricks and nuances down to a science come exam day. Compared to derivatives or some of the Forex stuff in Econ and Portfolio Management which actually requires a lot of brainpower to digest, this is just a matter of knowing the mechanics.

In retrospect I probably should have taken more progress exams throughout my studies but the fact that I finished my initial cut of the material early enough to do a secondary review mitigates that a bit.

Time to get ready for work tomorrow. Good weekend of review, exam almost around the corner.

FRA 1 Review

2010-05-09T22:32:00.001-04:00

#CFA Yesterday I focused on FRA1(intercorporate Investments) This section isn't too bad, just lots of little nuances you need to remember to get it right. From the CFAI EOC questions, the focus for this SS seems to be the following:

Based on category of investment, what is impact to Income or BS accounts

Which accounting method to use given a set of circumstances

How does impact on Financial Statements compare based on accounting treatment. General rule to use here is Equity Method gives better results, while acquisition gives worse ones, with proportionate in the middle.

Calculate amounts on certain BS or IS line items given accounting treatment.

For Special Purpose Entities(SPE's) only two questions focused on can you determine if it should or should not be consolidated and what the impact might be on a IS or BS account.

They didn't go too hard on the partial vs full goodwill piece. Basically can you determine impacts on Financial Statement accounts and how they would compare to each other.

I have to be honest, when I went back thru Stalla's lecture notes, I was just lost. I think they go way too deep on some of the topics and that's probably due to the fact that Becker(Stalla's parent company) does the CPA prep course as well and they just port it over. I found it much easier to understand when I read the Schweser material on it. Both seem to want to cover every little detail which can be dangerous as you may wind up wasting time trying to remember minutiae that may not even be tested. This is where my idea of using the actual CFAI material to direct your focus comes in. Some of the questions in Passmaster I could never answer if all I had to read was the CFAI material. It's still hard for me to imagine they will expect you to answer a question on how to account for upstream and/or downstream transactions or how to account for excess depreciation when using the equity method when there isn't even a EOC question for you to practice with, assuming that's the only resource you're using to study.

Today I wrapped up SS5 by writing up my own notes in Excel summarizing the key points. Once I am completed with FRA I will share them.

Overall I feel good about this SS now but will probably need to brush up on the goodwill piece and the SPE trivial pursuit stuff.

Econ Review

2010-05-08T23:19:00.001-04:00

#CFA Had to take a few days to focus on Econ. I mentioned before that Econ was an area I had trouble with before so I decided to revisit it. I definitely feel a lot better about it now and I think my adversion to the Forex piece has now been dealt with. Based on the CFAI EOC questions most of the material from this section will come from Forex with maybe a sprinkling of stuff from the other readings.The Forex stuff took a bit of work to get down, as it's so counterintuitive in places but practice makes perfect. I expect I'll need to review this once again to really drill it home before the exam but given the low weighting on the exam Im not gonna kill myself.

Quant Review

2010-05-08T23:06:00.000-04:00

#CFA Reviewed Quant earlier this week by finishing up the Stalla questions I didn't do the first time around and also going thru the CFAI EOC questions to see where they focused their attention on. This is one of my stronger sections and most of the concepts came right back once I applied them. I don't expect to do much review of this except via the questions I answer on mock exams from here on out and maybe some cursory review of formulas.

CFAI Questions Covered

Simple Regression

1) Calculating mean, variance, stdev and sample covariance. I can't expect there's gonna be a question on this on the exam but they had several questions in the EOC so make sure you at least remember the mechanics.

2) Testing if correlation coefficient is equal to zero, remember formula for t test.

3) Compute Coefficient of Determination from SSR and SST. Work backwards from that to get correlation coefficient(sq rt), compute SEE.

4) Interpret ANOVA table, define certain terms, know how to calculate missing components and use F Test using p values.

5) Compute predicted values and then compute prediction intervals. This tripped me up, definitely a review topic.

Item sets were straightforward, mostly simply calculations and interpretations of ANOVA tables. Some of the other questions were more detailed than I expected, especially the calculations of variance, covariance etc.

Multiple Regression(same as above plus)

1) Determine significance of regression parameters(divide coefficient value by Std error, compare to t value based on # of observations)

2) Calculating predicted values given coefficients

3) Calculate prediction intervals for specific coefficients and for the entire regression given a set confidence level.

4) Determine existence of heteroskedasticity, serial correlation and multicollinearity.

5) Interpret what coefficients indicate about the model.

Big boo to Stalla on this section, they barely mentioned the tests used for heteroskedasticity and serial correlation but the CFAI questions have detailed question on calculating them and interpreting them. Was not prepared for this so I need to review those tests. Item sets mostly straightforward, nothing too bad here.

Time Series

1) Calculate the predicted value using a trend model

2) Interpret Durbin-Watson statistic and what it says about the t test validity

3) Use a chart to interpret appropriateness of model and determine if covariance stationary. Seems to be a recurring theme. I would expect a chart on the real exam if this is any indication.

4) Compute mean reverting level

5) What treatment should a model receive if a certain pattern is detected(exponential growth, non covariance stationary, autocorrelation of residuals)

6) Also know all steps to correctly specify a model

7) Unit Roots and Cointegration

No item sets here so I would expect maybe 1-3 questions tops from this section on the real exam, sprinkled in mostly with stuff from Multiple Regression. I don't think they'd throw a full item set of Time Series stuff at us. Overall, I'm in good shape for this section.

Ethics Review

2010-05-04T22:23:00.001-04:00

#CFA I know I said I was going to leave Ethics for pure quizzing and towards the end but after a long weekend, I didn't feel like tackling Quant Monday so I decided to start with Ethics. Since I received my Stalla material after I had already read the CFAI material for Ethics I needed to catch up on the lecture and homework to make sure I can take advantage of Stalla's Promise. This is one of those deals where if you complete all the readings, lectures and quiz questions but still fail the exam, you can retake the Stalla curriculum next year for "free"(excludes study guides if curriculum changes which it always does). I don't plan on failing the exam of course, but I would like to make sure I have that option in a worst case scenario.

I went thru the CFAI questions and item sets and for the most part, I remembered a lot of this stuff. I need to brush up on the newer material in L2 such as the Research Objectivity and Soft Dollar standards as well as the Prudent Man vs Investor stuff but that will come with lots of quizzing over the next few weeks in addition to the last week of review.

From the CFAI readings there were two item sets on Prudent Man vs Investor so I'm betting there will definitely be some questions on the real exam about it. I had an earlier post about using the CFAI questions or lack thereof as a guide in terms of where to focus the energies and I will continue with this as I go thru each section.

Hell Month Begins

2010-05-03T15:42:00.001-04:00

#CFA OK, it's May, only a month left until the level 2 exam. I have completed all the readings and quizzing thru Stalla. This is the month that will make or break me and it's time to shut down everything else and get focused on passing this beast. I'm going to sit down tonight and try to come up with a strategy for this next month and line up some dates I plan on covering certain material and do mock exams. I plan on taking my first one this Friday which gives me this week to review some of the older material I have forgotten already like Quant, Econ and basic FRA. I'll leave Ethics alone as quizzing usually helps me study better and make sure I recap that during the last week.

Stay tuned for my battle plan for the next month.

International Asset Pricing - Holy &^%%

2010-04-28T00:02:00.001-04:00

#CFA This is the only section of the curriculum I was just lost at. I absolutely despise the currency exchange stuff. I don't know why but it's so counterintuitive to me and this stuff they introduced was just way over my head. I guess I'm just entitled to a bad day but man, to be this close to the end of my initial pass and be as clueless as I was was disheartening. David Heatherington gave the lecture and he's usually really good, but even he couldn't help me.

I have one section left and then I'm done with my initial pass thru the curriculum. That alone will be an accomplishment. I'll try to double back and review this section again, hopefully it'll be better for me next time.

Two Tactics for Every CFA Candidate

2010-04-27T10:57:00.001-04:00

#CFA Received this email from Allen Resources(another CFA prep provider). I think these are wise words. I've gotten away from exercising but realized I needed to work it into my routine. Now I do about 20 mins in the morning before I go to work to get it out of the way. I have found it helps me feel more energized. The 2nd tip is definitely worthwhile as well.

Enjoy....

It's important that you stay (or get) both focused and motivated. Here are two non-prep tactical suggestions that we want you to incorporate, starting today:

1. Work out each day. Take 20-40 minutes every day and exercise. Walking, running, swimming, biking, weights...basically any physical activity that keeps (or gets) your body strong will lead to a strong (and focused) mind.

2. Plan a vacation. Yes, book a trip for immediately after the CFA exam, or as soon as possible after the exam (it could be the following weekend). It doesn't have to be anything huge, but it has to be a getaway that you'll feel like you're "rewarding" yourself for the time spent preparing for the exam. Then, as part of this tactic, when you go to bed each night, visualize that "reward." This will help you stay motivated to study, and if you do the "visualization thing" each night, you will have a much better chance of sound sleep. All that leads to positive things, not the least of which is confidence!

We hope that helps! We're easy to reach. Please don't hesitate to contact me directly if you have anyquestions about the CFA exam or your prep strategy.

Some Strategy Thoughts

2010-04-26T22:52:00.000-04:00

#CFA As I was going thru the CFAI questions on Derivatives, I started wondering to myself, if in theory you're supposed to be able to pass the tests using ONLY the CFAI material, then why isn't there at least one question on each LOS to help you prepare for every possibility? How could each candidate be reasonably expected to prepare for every possible permutation of a problem around a LOS if you don't ask at least one question on it? As I started thinking about this more, is there hint on where to focus your attention in that pattern? Stalla and Schweser both make sure to cover EVERYTHING in terms of questions so much so you can actually start to worry about the sheer volume of possible questions you could be asked. But in reality, there's probably only a very small set of questions they will probably ask.

I think I'm going to start using the questions at the end of the chapters to give me some guidance as to where to focus my studies and make sure I know how to solve those types of questions and various permutations. Only then will I shift my focus to some of the material where no questions were asked. This could be dangerous so I'll only try it on sections like Econ and Alternative Investments which will only make up 10% max of the exam.

Derivatives

2010-04-21T21:41:00.001-04:00

#CFA Sorry I haven't kept up with the posting, I'm trying to get thru these final readings so I can move on to review time. I will be posting more come review time.

I just finished futures, forwards and options with only swaps and PM left to go. Lots of material, lucky me that I saw a lot of this before so it came back quick. I decided I will not be memorizing the Black-Scholes or Black models, I can't believe they would make us memorize that crazy equation for the exam. I recently started working the CFAI material into my studies, just to get a sense of what they might ask or what the actual questions focus on. I'm beginning to think that if a question isn't found in the material on a concept, you can bet it won't be asked on the exam. I'm going to test that theory on this exam with certain LOS's from non-heavily tested areas.

I found a few videos on YouTube that may help with the Derivative stuff. Doesn't cover the CFA readings per se but they helped me understand a bit better. I highly recommend finding related videos on topics, sometimes it will help to crystallize your understanding, especially if you're just using the texts to study.

Binomial (one step) for option price

Two step binomial

The plan is to wrap up swaps and teh rest of derivatives by Friday night, do a complete review of Derivatives top to bottom Saturday and then spend next week on Portfolio Management which will bring me to the end of my initial review of the curriculum. I will post my detailed study plan for the month of May, complete with the mocks I plan on taking and plan of action to shore up on weak areas. I will also post more videos I find useful.

AI one more time

2010-04-15T15:18:00.001-04:00

#CFA My initial review of Alternative Investments was cursory at best and I wanted to take some time to go thru that section in more detail. Since I already wrapped up Fixed Income and feel really good about it, I decided to take today and tomorrow to double back and review AI once again. It was as if I never read it the first time, I didn't recall any of the information. A good quizzing session showed me I had much work to do. I won't spend too much time on this section as it's not one of the biggies but I think I can get some easy points here if I spend 1-2 days on it. It won't affect my schedule at all so why not.

52 Days Left

2010-04-14T09:17:00.001-04:00

#CFA About 50 days left until the Level 2 exam. I'm currently wrapping up Fixed Income 2(SS15) and I just registered for a 6 hour mock exam the local South Florida CFA society is sponsoring thru Schweser. I took their mock exam for Level 1 in 2008. They gave it a little earlier, about a month before the actual exam so I used it to gauge where I stood after reviewing all of the material a first time. I didn't do any thorough review before the exam and just wanted to get my feet wet in terms of taking a full 3 hour exam(they only gave an AM session). Here's the original recap from that experience.

This one is on May 22nd exactly two week before the real thing so I expect it to be a much better reading on where I stand. I will have completed all initial readings of the curriculum by then and should have taken between 3-5 mock exams. Ideally, I score over a 70 on that mock. Since this will be a full day 6 hour simulation of the real thing I want to go into that mock as prepared as possible. This will hopefully leave the last 2 weeks focused on shoring up on remaining weak areas and memorization of some of the trivial pursuit material.

The way it's looking I should be able to finish my initial reading of the entire curriculum by end of April, leaving me May for review and exam prep. I like where I stand right now, the 2nd half of the curriculum(say SS9 onwards) I feel really strong at and going back and reviewing the first half during May should fill in any gaps that exist, mostly around FSA and Econ.

SS14 Complete

2010-04-08T19:32:00.001-04:00

#CFA Wrapped up SS14 tonight. This was probably one of the easier sections so far as a lot of this material was in Level 1 when I wrote it back in 2008 and I saw a lot of the material in my grad programs. I did a nice 100 question quizzing session tonight using QBank and scored very well.

I'm strong in most areas, only the trivial pursuit stuff tripped me up from time to time. I'm going to mark this section as one of my strong areas which means it'll get a quick glance during review but nothing too deep.

Where is everybody at?

2010-04-06T10:23:00.001-04:00

#CFA Curious where people are in their studies for either L1 2 or 3. Drop me a line via email or in the comments and let me know!

What Every CFA Level II Candidate Needs to Know

2010-04-06T09:41:00.001-04:00

#CFA Video from Schweser.

Enjoy

CFA Exam Experience

2010-04-06T09:35:00.001-04:00

#CFA I found this on Schweser's site poking around last night. It's about some candidates(and Schweser customers) experience studying for the exams. Some good stuff in there, I find myself going thru a lot of the same emotions as I go thru my studies. It's for the 2008 exam.

Located here(will open in Google Docs).

Stalla Weekly Guidance Summary

2010-04-05T20:21:00.001-04:00

#CFA In case I never posted this before, this is a link to the Weekly Guidance Summary that Stalla sends out to its students. Some quick tips from Frank Stalla himself on areas of focus for the exam and some other tips. Well worth reading as you go thru the curriculum.

Located here

Fixed Income 1 - SS14

2010-04-05T20:18:00.001-04:00

#CFA I wrapped up my Equity review over the weekend and that was probably the smartest decision I made all year. I was able to finish go thru all 3 SS's top to bottom and quiz myself so I feel real comfortable with Equity now and a decent review during the last month should really drill it home. I wish I would have done the same with FRA but I still have time.

I started Fixed Income Sat night by watching the lectures on Credit Analysis and Term Structure of Interest Rates. Most of this is regurgitated from Level 1 and I also saw it in my graduate programs so it was mostly a refresher. I did have to refresh myself on bootstrapping and calculating spot/forward rates but it came back to me right away. I plan on watching the last lecture tomorrow night on Valuing Bonds with Embedded Options and should be able to finish this SS by Thursday night.

Stalla has a good review of the Par. Spot and Forward Rate located here that's worth re-reading as a quick refresher.

Equity Investments 3 - SS12

2010-03-27T14:23:00.000-04:00

#CFA So glad I started this last night and decided to continue over the weekend. This SS is an absolute bear. I never touched residual income models in grad school and only barely touched the FCF models. Of course, to get the FCF pieces you need to know how to calculate FCF from a financial statement and work backwards from either Net Income or CFO so brush up on your Level 1 skills. The key here is lots of problems to drill home the steps involved and the little tricks. I haven't gone thru the Market Based and Private Company valuation stuff yet, that also looks like a bear of a section.

I'm ahead of my study plan which is great because I want to spend the entire next week on this SS to completely master it. I'm betting at least 10% of the exam will come from this SS alone which is 2 item sets. Plus if you master this, the earlier material on DDM's is made that much easier. Since this is the heart of the curriculum, it's important to own this material early. I don't want to spend much time on this during review month since I do need to make up some ground in the FRA sections.

Plan for rest of weekend is to watch the lecture on the Market Based and Private Company valuation sections tonight, then double back and do more problems on the FCF, RI models. Tomorrow I'd like to do more quizzing on the Market Based/Private Company section and then during the week complete quizzing and updating of my notes and flash cards. I think this section definitely requires some flashcards to help drill those key steps in your head along with some good note taking.

By next weekend, I'd like to have SS12 completed and then spend that weekend on pure review of the entire Equity SS's(10-12). Entering the home stretch, time to buckle down and get even more serious than I have been from the beginning.

CFA Level 2 iPhone Apps

2010-03-25T11:15:00.001-04:00

#CFA I tried two iPhone apps for Level 2 that were relatively inexpensive so I figured I would post a review for those of you that are iPhone users.

Pass the CFA Level 2 is a nice flashcard app that covers the entire curriculum and breaks down the material by LOS. Useful for quick reviews of the study sessions. Only things I don't like are that you can't flip thru the cards and that there is no setting to automatically show the answer. I'm not big on using flashcards to quiz myself except for formulas and it would be nice to just have the answer show up automatically. Price was $19.99 so not too expensive.

I also tried CFA Level II : Economics which is a free app by Quartic Training. Econ is definitely a weak area for me and this was very helpful in doing some nice reviewing of the material. I like that it points you to the material in the CFAI, Stalla and Schweser material. You can tap the screen to go back and forth thru the flashcards and the material is presented as soon as you view a card. I wish they had more for the other SS's. I love how it has a solution section that goes thru the computational stuff in this SS too. You can also add your own notes for a flashcard and even email them. Sweet, sweet sweet.

I have not tried the Allen CFA apps as they are way too expensive for my tastes. I would never want to do any serious quizzing or review on the iPhone anyway, it's more for quick review.

Check them out if you're a iPhone user. Hope they help.

Study Session 11

2010-03-24T23:06:00.000-04:00

Wrapped up SS11 tonight by finishing the Dividend Discount Model readings. This stuff is second nature to me as I saw this throughout my master's programs and a lot of it is overlap from L1. I still have to wrap up the item sets for this section and then it's on to SS12 which seems to be the meat of the exam. Schweser calls it the heart and soul of the CFA program so you know it'll be tested heavily. My goal is to finish it by Sunday night and then do an exam on SS11 and 12 together.

I've started using the Schweser Level 2 workshop slides when I go thru the material which helps me summarize the key points and is a useful review tool before quizzing.

75 Days Left

2010-03-23T00:18:00.001-04:00

Boy, tonight it really hit me how much work I have left to do for this exam. Plenty of time but boy the material just keeps coming and coming and coming like a never ending train. I just finished Equity 1 and Alternative Investments(SS10 and 13) and began Equity 2(SS11) tonight. I'm starting to hate Peter Olinto. His lessons make me write more in an hour than I normally write in an entire year and I always have to pause the lesson to catch up.

Will try to get thru the rest of the lectures tomorrow night. I haven't been as disciplined recently as I've needed to be. That stops today. I'm shutting down my personal life for these last 75 days outside of seeing my kids. No way I'm going thru all this suffering to not pass this exam.

Midterm Review

2010-03-16T22:13:00.001-04:00

I'm typing this on a plane on my way out to Phoenix to visit my best friend who moved out there recently. I wrapped up Study Session 9 this week which marks the midway point of the studies for Level 2 in June. I have to say, only halfway thru and this is already much harder than I anticipated and definitely a step up from Level 1. The material isn't difficult, it's just so much to absorb and master and a lot of it is brand new even for someone like me who has a MBA and a MS in Finance. I was lucky enough to see some of the Quant stuff in my MSF program and I'm hoping I covered some of the derivative and fixed income material as well. The accounting piece was brand new to me top to bottom which is probably why I struggled with it. I'll definitely have to go thru each SS again to really master it come exam time.

Since I have a 5 hour flight to sit thru, I'm using some slidess from Schweser that summarize the Level 2 material. I figure it's a good way to review the core concepts I've covered so far so I don't forget them. As I went thru the slides I noted what areas I felt weak on and would need to focus come review time.

Ethics - Overall strong area for me. Lots of problems will help drill this stuff home come exam time.

Areas of Focus - Soft Dollar Standards, Prudent Man vs Investor, Research Standards

Quant - Another strong area for me. A lot of this I saw in my MSF courses but some of it is new.

Areas of Focus - ANOVA table calcs, assumption violation(serial correlation etc), time series

Economics - Definitely my weakest area by far. Only one item set so not gonna get too bogged down here.

Areas of Focus - entire reading. Probably just going to use the Secret Sauce to review high level core concepts and aim for the best.

FRA and Corp Finance - Decently strong here.

Areas of Focus - Pensions, Intercorporate Investments

I also watched a lecture on Equity.

SS Strengths and Weaknesses

2010-03-04T23:04:00.001-05:00

#CFA To follow up on the earlier post, while I still need to drill down on specific areas in each SS, this is a high level ranking of where I feel I'm strong/weak at for each SS up to this point

SS1 - 2 - Ethics - STRONG - I remembered lots from L1 and review time in the past month will ensure I own this area

SS3 - Quant - STRONG - I owned this in L1 and a lot of this stuff I covered in my MSF curriculum.

SS4 - Econ - WEAK - Not too worried, I felt weak in L1 Econ but did well enough to get over 70%. This is only 1 item set anyway. I will review it but not devote too much time to it during my last month.

SS5 - 7 - FRA1 - MEDIUM - I will definitely reread this stuff top to bottom in the last month. I did the same for L1 and it worked well. I do need to take a day to list my strengths/weaknesses so I know where to focus more.

SS8 - STRONG - Only the one area to bone up on and I should be fine.

Study Session 8 - Capital Budgeting

2010-03-04T23:02:00.001-05:00

#CFA Did a PassMaster session on the first part of SS8 tonight. Not too bad. Corp Finance was a strong area for me in school and on L1 so I expect to do well here on L2.

I probably should have started doing this much earlier, but I'm going to begin listing what I feel are my strengths and weaknesses in each Study Session so I know where to focus come review time. I'll try to go back thru the earlier SS's and ID areas I'm strong at and can gloss over and areas where I need to really reread the material and do lots of problems. I'll start with this SS and make it a habit to list them after I quiz myself.

Strengths

Using the EAA(Equivalent Annual Annuity) approach

Effects on inflation on Budgeting

Capital Rationing

Project Risk Analysis and Market Risk

Real Options

Budgeting Pitfalls

Budgeting Alternatives

Weaknesses

Projecting Cash Flows - This stuff isn't hard, I just need to go thru it top to bottom again to drill it home. Started to get it after I went thru the quiz questions a 2nd time.

I also began reading the next section in SS8 to get a headstart on the weekend. Will be taking tomorrow off to rest a bit and actually experience life before taking the weekend to finish SS8 and start SS9.

Study Session 7 Part 2

2010-03-03T23:36:00.001-05:00

#CFA OK ignore what I said about SS7 being pretty easy. After a quiz session in Passmaster and Qbank I walked away scared. I don't know if this will be true come exam time, but it seems you need to really remember a lot of the adjustments that get made on the financial statements and not just at a high level. I mean knowing exactly when to add back depreciation expense at the right tax rate, etc etc etc. I can't imagine the real thing will actually expect you to know that level of detail but some of the Schweser questions were very difficult if you didn't recall the exact process to adjust the statements. You also better know the ratios down cold which is something I struggled with initially. I'll need to make some flashcards or a formula sheet and just have them memorized along with the Dupont model.

Just to prevent me from jumping off the balcony I decided to see what kind of questions the CFAI text asked at the end of readings 24-26 and those don't seem to be as intensive as some of the Stalla/Schweser ones so maybe I'm just blowing this out of proportion. Whatever the case may be, I will need to do a complete top to bottom review of FRA during the last month. Part of me wants to do it now, but I don't think it's worth it, I'm likely to push the schedule out further and forget the material anyway. With the weighting what it is, I'm better off lumping it with the final review of Ethics during the final month so it's fresh come exam time.

At any rate, tomorrow's plan is to review and quiz the first part of Corp Finance(SS8 - Capital Budgeting). I'll probably take Friday off to rest my brain a little before trying to finish the remainder of Corporate Finance(SS8-Capital Structure and Leverage and Dividend Policy) Saturday. I'll then try a Progress Exam for SS1-8 Sunday and begin SS9. I mentioned I want to leave at least a month of review time and I think I can accomplish that if I follow this schedule.

Study Session 7

2010-03-01T23:50:00.001-05:00

#CFA I watched the Stalla lectures tonight for Study Session 7 and did some basic quizzing. This stuff is pretty easy all things considered, especially since a lot of it leverages the material from L1, especially when it comes to the DuPont analysis stuff. It's definitely worth reviewing some of the L1 concepts. Stalla has a good PDF that reviews it located here.

Most of this came right back from L1 after looking it for a while. I'm going to reread the two sections in the study notes tomorrow night and finish the quizzing including the item set questions before moving on to the first part of Corporate Finance on Wednesday.

I also obtained the Schweser QBank which I will be using as part of my quizzing going forward. I've discovered the QBank questions are more "CFAI like" than Stalla's questions. I'll use Stalla's for my initial quizzing but then use QBank over the weekend for my final reviews. I'm also going to try to get thru all of Corporate Finance by the end of this coming weekend. I'd like to take 1-2 weeks off my current study schedule so I have a full month of review. Right now I'm scheduled to finish the initial readings the week of 5/17 which only gives me 2 weeks of review. I think I can speed up and finish by 5/7 which gives me almost a full month to review, and take mock exams left and right.

Study Session 6 - Pensions and Multinational Operations

2010-02-23T23:13:00.000-05:00

#CFA Over last two nights I studied SS6 which covers Pensions and Multinational Operations. I switched up my routine a little bit and instead of doing the readings first, I decided to watch the lectures first and then do questions. This has worked really well for me so far, the material makes more sense watching the lecture than simply reading a bunch of text. I find I can get to the core concepts earlier and grasp them faster this way. I felt like I had to reread the study guides a few times to understand the stuff and it was draining. This way I can cover the material faster and use the study guides to fill in the blanks as I go thru the quizzing.

This material was not that bad, I really got the hang of it on first try. I don't think I could have grasped this material this fast simply reading the texts. Peter Olinto really does a great job of presenting this stuff and working thru problems designed to help you master it.

I think my new routine from now on will be:

Mondays - Watch lectures and quiz

Tuesdays - Watch remaining lectures and quiz

Wednesdays - Requiz on Monday's material and do item sets

Thursdays - Requiz on Tuesday's material and do item sets.

Friday - OFF

Saturdays/Sundays - Review notes, reread study guides and fill in the blanks with any lessons learned from the quizzing.

Of course each study session is different and the schedule may not work out exactly, but at a high level this is what I'll stick to the rest of the way.

SS5 and First Progress Test

2010-02-20T14:53:00.001-05:00

#CFA Went to library today to quiz on SS5. I need to reread this section top to bottom as my first pass was not that good. None of this is hard, just a lot of little nuances to remember. Not too worried, a re-read of the material and going thru my notes will help me own this on my second pass of the quiz which I'll do tomorrow.

By the way, here's Stalla's advice on SS5

I did do a progress test today on SS's 1-4. Total of 30 questions weighted by section. No review at all. Decided to leave SS5 out as it was fresh in my mind so not a true representation of what I would retain given a week away from it. I think I'll do that gong forward, make sure progress tests do NOT include the material I just finished reading and quizzing on.

Answered 25/30 correct for a score of 83%. You can't read too much into these tests as they're not true representations of actual exam item sets. The questions will sometimes be in Level 1 format testing concepts, other's are single questions based on an entire Level 2 style vignette. The good news is that I recalled a lot of the Quant stuff I had reviewed last week so I think that area will be a strength of mine going forward. I actually got most of the Econ questions right but too small a sample size to really get excited. A different set of questions could have easily thrown me for a loop. Ethics was good for me too. Reviewing that the last month will really help me own it come exam time. Overall I'm pleased with where I stand now. I know the weak areas I need to focus on and given my plan, I think I'm in good shape.

Study Session 5 - Intercorporate Investments #CFA

2010-02-16T00:23:00.001-05:00

Began SS5 today which covers Intercorporate Investments. I quickly realized how much of the Level 1 accounting I had forgotten. I also realized why I love Stalla and Peter Olinto. There's just no way I could have comprehended this material by simply reading the text which I did before I watched the lecture. If you've never watched Peter deliver a lecture, especially on FRA which is his specialty(he's a CPA who handles most of the CPA material for Becker, Stalla's parent), he's worth the price of admission alone. You can find some of his stuff on YouTube mostly for CPA topics. Not only does he distill the concepts down to easily understandable chunks, he makes you write a TON in the lecture notes which helps you "get" the material. I could only get thru half of the lecture which was 2.5 hours long because my hand was hurting, seriously. I'll finish up tomorrow.

The material isn't that bad, just a lot of small details to remember and going thru the example problems with Peter helps a lot in mastering the material. I got thru Partial Goodwill before putting it down.

Plan is to wrap up rest of lecture tomorrow, maybe do a bit of the quizzing in PassMaster. I'd like to get thru everything by Wednesday night as I have some commitments Thursday and Friday. This should put me in good shape to use the weekend to really drill this stuff home before moving onto SS6. I'm also pushing the progress test back to this weekend as well and will incorporate SS5 into it.

Stalla Flashcard Review

2010-02-15T01:17:00.001-05:00

Here's a quick review of the Stalla flashcards.

Each LOS has a dedicated flashcard for it. On the front is the LOS and on the back are some notes that pertain to it. The problem with the flashcards is that I don't study by LOS and most of the notes on the back are not comprehensive enough for my tastes to really be of any use. I've tried using them right before quizzing to do a quick review, but you need more detail than a flash card can give you. You're better off writing your own.

I'm probably going to sell these, I'll give them a few more weeks to see if they add any value, if not, I'll offer to the highest bidder.

See pics below

Box

Front of Card

Back of Card

Quant Quizzing

2010-02-15T01:01:00.001-05:00

OK, I started off slow with Quant but picked it up towards the end. I'm good with multiple and simple regression. Once you get thru a few practice problems and understand the common threads it's actually quite easy. Time Series was a bit harder but again, once I was able to get the hang of it towards the end. I suspect most questions from time series would probably be qualitative in nature while you may find more calculations in the multiple regression area.

Stalla's PassMaster software is good but they seem to have too many calculation questions. I still don't like how you can't decide the difficulty of the questions you answer, something that QBank does give you. This is why I recommend using both if you can afford it.

Overall, I feel I'm in good shape for a progress test tomorrow. Ethics doesn't require much review at this point, Quant I'm good at right now because it's fresh, but Econ could be a challenge. I already forgot everything I read last week LOL. At this point though, I feel good about my progress so far. I've taken some good notes adding to the Stalla lecture notes which are a big help come review time.

Plan for this week is to take a weighted progress test tomorrow and then try to get thru a reading of FSA. This is the meat of the L2 stuff so I want to get a good jump on it.

No more Econ, no more Econ

2010-02-13T01:09:00.001-05:00

God I hate this topic. I don't think I've ever been as frustrated as I was going thru the quizzing on this tonight. This material is a whole college semester or three crammed into a week and then you throw the currency stuff on top of it which is just SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO counterintuitive my brain is just throbbing right now.

Cross currency quotes with the bid ask involved was just the most painful thing I've ever done. Trying to get the currency algebra down was tough. I'm praying starting tonight that's not on the exam and they cover interest rate or purchasing parity.

I started to get into a groove towards the end but man, this was painful!!! To really grab this material I'd probably need another few days to concentrate on it, but it's not worth it considering there's only going to be on item set on it. I know my weak areas which I'll focus on come review time but I need to put this down for a while and go back to Quant before moving on to FSA.

A quick workout then off to bed...

More Econ - Currency Exchange

2010-02-11T23:55:00.001-05:00

Last night I covered Balance of Payments which was a pretty simple topic. Stalla does not cover Econ in order, it groups what it feels is the best way to pick up the material. Econ is definitely a topic you can get lost in if you don't have a mind for it and I definitely don't. There's only going to be 1 item set on this so the amount of material compared to the amount of questions on the real exam are probably not worth killing yourself.

Tonight I got into Currency Exchange which seems to make up the meat of the material. I've seen most of this in my MSF courses but at least I got 2 months to pick it up and digest it in school. Trying to do so in 4 hours was quite painful!! Anyone who works with currencies or invests in them knows the whole quoting mechanism is very counterintuitive. Some of the topics towards the end were new but not too bad. Ben Jones covered it during the lectures and while he ranks 3rd on my list behind Peter Olinto and David H, he did a decent job. I'm going to see if I can find some videos on YouTube on some of the topics I had a hard time wrapping my head around. I'll post them if I find any.

The plan for the weekend is to do the quizzing tomorrow night on Econ, and then use the weekend to catch back up on Quant since I didn't get a chance to quiz too heavily on that. If I have time left over I may go back and redo Ethics as well. Goal is to take a progress exam on Monday to see where I stand after a quarter of the way thru the material. I'm starting to get back into the swing of things, but I know the next month or so is key with all the FSA topics coming.

New #CFA Candidate Site

2010-02-11T21:16:00.001-05:00

Hat tip to Vimesh for passing it on. I also linked it on the left.

CFA Cooler

Interesting Article

2010-02-10T15:13:00.003-05:00

I got an email from eFinancialCareers.com and in it there was an article on performance of CFA charterholders vs non charterholders.

Here's the eFinancialCareers article.

Here's the original article

Interesting discussion.

Enjoy!!

Stalla Finally Arrives and On to Econ

2010-02-10T00:27:00.003-05:00

I finally got the Stalla material in the mail Friday in addition to the flashcards. Immediately I am reminded why I prefer Stalla to Schweser when I pop in the video lectures to review Quant. The Stalla videos are just head and shoulders above the Schweser ones. I really enjoy listening to them, especially after doing the readings, it helps to really drill the material in my head. David Heatherington did a great job at explaining the concepts and I feel I started to "get it" after watching him. I think it also helps to use the lecture notes while watching the videos, you're forced to take notes to follow along and to me, that's much better than simply highlighting the study guide.

I did fall behind schedule a little, I didn't get to quiz as much on Quant as I would have liked. I began Econ tonight by doing the first reading and then watching the lecture for that section. Ben Jones is doing Econ this time. In Level 1, Peter Olinto did Quant and David Heatherington did Econ so it was weird to see the switch. I'm assuming Peter does FSA though as accounting is his specialty.

At some point I'll post pics of the Stalla material, what you get with the package and comment on some of the good changes I noticed(PassMaster) and not so good ones(lecture notes). I'll eventually update the Secret Sauce document to reflect this as well.

For the rest of this week, the plan is to do some more Econ reading tomorrow followed by the lecture and wrap up the readings+videos for all of Econ by Friday. I want to take the weekend to catch up on the Quant and Econ quizzing because I want to take my first progress test on Monday to see where I stand. I also need to redo the Ethics quizzing since I got the software so late.

Here's a link to the Stalla Weekly Guidance. This is good stuff to read, even if you don't use Stalla.

Read it Here

My Stalla Order Story

2010-02-02T16:34:00.001-05:00

Sorry to break up the monotony of curriculum related postings but I had to share this with the community as I think this is an example of how you perform customer service. Here's a brief history:

1/18 - Ordered Stalla L2 system online. Those that have followed me or read my blog know I prefer Stalla over Schweser especially for the videos. I receive order confirmation email, shipping takes 5-7 days.

1/25 - I receive another order confirmation email, making it seem as if my order from the 18th wasn't placed. Of course, that threw me off so I call up to see what was going on. Apparently, when you order online, they are not ecommerce enabled so instead of your order being expedited, CC charged, etc, the orders are downloaded from the website and manually punched in. As someone with an IT background, I almost couldn't believe in 2010 this would even be a possibility. At any rate, I'm expecting materials to arrive by end of week, etc.

2/1 - Still no materials, so I call up again and they give me the FedEx tracking number and told me it would be there today(2/2).

2/2 - Usually FedEx delivers packages by now so I punch in the tracking # and I see that not only would my materials not get here today, they were only PICKED UP today from their IL location. New delivery of the 4th. Of course, I'm already upset because now I'm further delayed in my studies and we're going on 3 weeks here. I have the PDF of Book 1 but we all know you want to highlight and jot down notes when you're reading thru, so it's quite worthless right now and I'm not paying to print it out.

Call up and speak to a nice young lady who researches and apologizes profusely for the issue. I asked if there was any way to expedite the package at their expense even though it's already in the delivery pipeline and she said no it usually winds up delaying the shipment if they need to reroute it, etc.

I originally started typing this post to bash Stalla, and halfway thru typing, the young lady called me back on my phone and said they would be sending me the flashcards for free at their own expense to make up for the inconvenience. The flashcards do not come with the System package and go for $195 on the website separately. I had them for Level 1 and they really didn't add much value but hey, you can't argue with free. I might even sell them if I don't wind up using them.

I figured I'd share my experience since you usually don't hear too many stories of good customer service these days. While it's still inexcusable to have a website ordering system that actually SLOWS DOWN the ordering process(still can't get my head around that) at least they were smart enough to recognize and do their best to make it better for a loyal customer who's blown close to $2000 on their materials for L1 and L2.

Thanks for reading.

On to Quant

2010-02-01T22:01:00.001-05:00

Woke up early yesterday, hit Starbucks and started reading thru the Quant sections. Only got thru Readings 11 and part of 12 before my brain started to hurt. Although I've seen this stuff in my MSF program, it still takes a while for it to really sink in unless you just have a beautiful mind for this stuff. I did pick it back up tonight and I started to get it. You can really only understand it via practice problems left and right and then it usually clicks. I'm still waiting for my Stalla material to come via mail tomorrow and I'm interested to see how they present it, the Schweser videos just left me kinda lost.

I did find some basic videos on YouTube from BionicTurtle that help with some of the concepts. As I always say, if you have a hard time understanding material presented from one source, use several others. Ive found things just start to click when I see it presented in different ways and this guy seems to really present the material in a clear understandable way.

Here are a couple that cover some of the material in Readings 11 and 12. These do not cover every LOS point by point but the major concepts are covered with concrete examples which helps me visualize and absorb the material better. They also show how to do this in Excel which is helpful if you have class projects on this material or use this in real life. There are many others on YouTube if you simply search for the terms in the readings. It's always best to watch these after you've done the readings, this way you know what specific pieces of the videos to focus on. I've found this works real well for me.

I definitely want to own Readings 11 and 12 before I go on since they seem to be the meat of the Quant stuff and you must understand them to get the later material. I can already see this is stuff you want to stay fresh on using Progress tests and consistent review of the formulas and concepts.

Intro to Linear Regression

Regression #3: Standard Error in Linear Regression

Regression #4: ANOVA table in regression

Standard error of estimate (SEE)

I hope they help.

Level 1 Results

2010-01-27T12:43:00.003-05:00

Looks like most of the candidate boards are swamped right now but I did find this article on the CFAI website that says the pass rate for Dec was 34%. It was around 46% in June which means they made the Dec exam harder based on the 3 answers than it was in June. I suspected this would be the case as my theory is that they want Level 1 pass rates to be 40% and under given the amount of people who take the exam these days.

Can people share their results with me, either on the comments or via email? I'm curious what folks thought about the exam itself.

Item Sets

2010-01-26T00:27:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned before the new question format in Level 2 presents a few challenges. Don't quote me, but I believe the format of the Level 2 exam is 10 item sets in each session with 6 questions per item set which comes out to 60 questions in each session and a total of 120 total.

I just did my first item sets for Ethics and I already noticed why this format can throw you for a loop. It's real easy to lose concentration when reading 5-6 paragraphs to the point where you have to re-read the entire item set. What I did to solve this was read 1-2 paragraphs at a time and then try to answer the first 1-2 questions, assuming the paragraphs I read actually had all the information I needed to answer them. This seemed to work well as it seems the question order follows the order of information provided in the item set. It remains to be seen whether I can follow this during the rest of the material but if so, that could be one way of tackling the item sets and breaking them down into more manageable components.

Another tip was to underline key info in the item set and write in quick notes in the margins. Usually I was able to already note violations just from the reading so when a question was asked on that, I already knew the answer without having to revert back .

Of course this is harder to do when answering questions electronically but I think that could be a good thing. If you learn how to mentally underline the key points when using QBank or Passmaster, it should be easy on exam day to actually underline the key points and use that to your advantage.

I have my first live Stalla class tomorrow with Ethics as the topic. This will serve as the final review for me and I'll then hop into the more complex material such as Quant next.

Remainder of Study Session 2 - Ethics

2010-01-20T22:27:00.001-05:00

I wrapped up the remainder of SS2 tonight. Reviewed the Prudent Man vs Prudent Investor rule and there were 3 case studies on how the SPC's are applied, So far, all the Ethics material is coming back to me and now I'm beginning to understand why CFAI tests it so much. By the time you finish taking all 3 exams, the ethics material should be second nature to you unlike some of the more academic concepts you may not even wind up using in your career.

Here are some videos I found on YouTube that cover the Level 2 Ethics material. I have not watched them in their entirety but they may come in handy during review time. If you recall my suggestions from the Level 1 studies, I'm a big fan of hearing the same material presented in different ways via different folks. I just think it helps to assimilate it better when you hear the same material covered differently.

I'm going to hold off on posting notes, it just takes too long and I'll be using the Stalla lecture notes where I'll add on my own 2 cents. That worked well for Level 1.

CFA Exam Prep: Level 2 Ethics

CFA Exam Prep: Level 2 Ethics: Topical Studies

Soft Dollar Standards

2010-01-18T22:48:00.003-05:00

Picked up Ethics again tonight, mostly just briefly reviewed the highlights of the Level 1 material and decided to quiz myself using QBank to see how much I retained. I actually did pretty well. Major issues were around the newer material on Level 2 such as the soft dollar standards. Speaking of which found some good material on the CFA Institute page at the link below:

Soft Dollar Standards

There's a link for the Research Objectivity Standards as well as the Standard of Professional Conduct which is must reading for Ethics.

Here are some notes I took for the Reading

Live Stalla Class Schedule

2010-01-18T00:49:00.002-05:00

This is the high level schedule I'll be following. I'll try to attend as many of these classes as possible.

http://twurl.nl/yqo4ss

Good orientation video by Stalla

2010-01-18T00:48:00.001-05:00

More for the overall CFA program, not a specific level

http://cdn.beckercpa.com/StallaOrientation/stallaorientation.html

Enjoy!

Going with Stalla for Level 2

2010-01-18T00:15:00.002-05:00

First off, happy new year to everyone. I hope your holidays were enjoyable and you started off the new year on a good note.

I'm finally going to get serious about the studying for the Level 2 exam this June. I have been slacking a bit but I decided to place the order for the Stalla System. This is the one with the lecture notes, the video lectures, passmaster, and study guides. It doesn't come with the mock exams or flashcards. I did not use those in Level 1 so I don't feel I'm missing much here. Also they are holding Level 2 classes here in Miami that start next week so I think I'll be attending those as well and following their schedule to have some structure.

I'll be posting the high level study plan this week.

There goes the plan

2009-10-26T23:07:00.001-04:00

It's been a few weeks since I last updated the blog because I just haven't studied at all. It's been a combination of a few things:

- big project at work I was managing that just went live.
- being a single father who gets his kids 50% of the time
- lack of motivation with the test so far out

The last one is the real killer, I just lack the hunger and desire I had last year, at least at this point.

I did decide to start over and begin with Ethics. I figured the reading is easy since most of the stuff is the same as L1 which will help me get the juices flowing. Quant just wasn't doing it for me.

My new goal is to get thru Ethics and Quant between now and the end of the year. I started tonight by watching the Schweser lectures on SS1. Luckily, the material for Ethics and Quant is identical to 2009 so I can use the old material for now. So far the Ethics is pretty much the same as Level 1, you have to know the Code of Ethics, and the individual standards and how to apply them. Instead of taking new notes I'm just going to reuse the ones I have from L1 and add to them.

Here are the Soft Dollar Standards and the Research Objectivity Standards

I suggest printing these out and reading thru them.

After watching the Schweser lectures, I'm reminded why I prefer Stalla for the videos. The lectures are just not that good and the guy who does them is corny. He likes to crack jokes which aren't funny and just take up time. Can't wait to get the Stalla material.

Level 2 Quant - SS 11

2009-09-21T19:09:00.001-04:00

Began studying tonight after work, got about 2 hours in. I decided to begin with Quant, just because I heard it was a beast and I also assumed that reading Ethics at this point wouldn't be as beneficial considering I'll need to reread it plenty of times as I get closer to the exam.

I focused on SS3 and LOS 11 tonight which covered Correlation and Regression. I've seen much of this in the Quant Methods course I took during my MSF program so this was more of a refresher although the curriculum goes into more detail than we did in class. To show you how rusty I am from not studying in about 10 months, I forgot my calculator at home so I couldn't work thru any problems after I went thru the reading. Not too worried at this point, this is why I started early.

The quant SS's are identical to 2009 and you can verify that by going to this link. This is nice because I can use the Schweser 2009 material which I was lucky enough to obtain to review this material before the 2010 material comes out. I also happen to have the actual CFA textbook that the curriculum is based on which is what we used during the course.

I only made it thru LOS 11 and felt comfortable with the concepts, nothing made my head spin.

I highly recommend you use the BionicTurtle videos found on YouTube. It's one thing to read something and think you understand it, quite another to read it and then watch a video that crystallizes it in your brain. They cover a lot of the CFA material from L1 and L2. I used it throughout my L1 prep and it came in very handy during review time. He has a few on regression and correlation I recommend you watch.

I plan on reading thru the remaining 2 SS's and will try to get to some quizzing this weekend on Quant. Nothing too heavy at this point, just want to get some notes down and break off the rust. I don't have much to quiz myself with outside of the Schweser material and the CFAI questions at this point.

Follow me on Twitter

2009-09-21T00:41:00.001-04:00

My twitter name is CFAL2Candidate, you can follow me if you use Twitter. I setup a Twitterfeed so that when I post here it updates my Twitter account with a link back to the blog. I also included a widget on the right that'll have a scrolling list of my tweets. I'll use Twitter for the quick hit thoughts and save the longer stuff for blog postings.

Starting tomorrow.

2009-09-20T23:58:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow I will begin my L2 studies. I'm still up in the air on what topic to tackle first but I'm leaning towards Quant. I perused it today and I saw a lot of this in my Quant methods course during my MSF program.

For those of you on Twitter, I just created an account I'll be using during the study season. I'll have a separate post on that and how you can use it to track my posts.

I'm excited to begin again, can't wait to get back into it.

Let's get this party started.

2009-09-08T22:48:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone, I hope the summer was enjoyable for you and I assume if you're taking the Level 2 exam for the first time next June, I'm sure it was very enjoyable. Congratulations to all that passed L1 back in June, I hope you'll be joining me for the next stage of this adventure.

After passing L1 back in December, I decided to take this year and devote some much needed time to myself and my kids. I'm sure I could have passed L2 right away, but I'm in no particular rush. With the economy the way it is now, I'm finding it's almost impossible to switch careers unless you want to just completely start over which I just cannot do at this stage in my life. I still hold out hopes of making the switch, but for now it's a secondary goal.

Enough talking about me, let's talk L2. I got the materials a month ago and I've been perusing them at a very high level, just to get a sense of what's ahead of me. The good news is that I've seen a lot of this material before so from that perspective, I'm not too worried. The bad news? This item set format presents a brand new set of challenges, one that doesn't lend itself well to the methodology I followed in L1.

I plan on starting the studying this week by going thru Ethics and answering some questions. From now until the New Year I'll try to cover all of the material but nothing too deep, and then hit it hard come January. I will be using Stalla, but will not take the live class this time and will just use the material and lectures. I'll also obtain the Schweser material and use it to supplement Stalla.

As I go thru the material my post rate will increase so stay tuned.

Sample L2 Questions

2009-07-31T15:51:00.001-04:00

Directly from the institute.

Located here

One thing I've already realized with this item set format, it doesn't lend itself well to quizzing via computer. You almost need to have a printout of the questions so you can highlight key information and easily refer back to the wording when going thru the questions. This will be an interesting challenge compared to L1 where every question was its own beast. I expect to use a LOT of scrap paper during my prep on printouts of the questions.

Level 2 Books Just Arrived

2009-07-31T15:48:00.001-04:00

Wow they got here fast!

6 Volumes in total

Volume 1 is Ethics, Quant Analysis and Economics. SS 1-2 are for Ethics, 3 is Quant and 4 is Econ
Volume 2 is FSA. SS's 5-7
Volume 3 is Corp Finance SS8-9
Volume 4 is Equity and is the thickest volume from what I can tell. SS's 10-12
Volume 5 is Alternative Asset Valuation and Fixed Income. SS13 is Alt and SS14-15 are Fixed Income
Volume 6 is Derivatives and Portfolio Management. SS16-17 are derivatives and SS18 is Portfolio Management

Will definitely begin with Ethics in September and will skim thru it in August. I'd like to see what Stalla's L2 course recommends as a study schedule, the one I used for L1 worked out well for me.

The % weights are below. Ethics isn't as big as in L1, neither is FSA but it looks like Equity jumped up a lot. Good thing this is a strong area for me.

Topic Area	Level II
Ethical and Professional Standards (total)	10
Quantitative Methods	5-10
Economics	5-10
Financial Reporting and Analysis	15-25
Corporate Finance	5-15
Investment Tools (total)	30-60
Equity Investments	20-30
Fixed Income	5-15
Derivatives	5-15
Alternative Investments	5-15
Asset Classes (total)	35-75
Portfolio Management and Wealth Planning (total)	5-15

Level 2 Curriculum on Its Way

2009-07-29T20:47:00.001-04:00

Order Information:

Description:2010 Level II CFA Program Quantity: 1

Curriculum

Date Shipped: 07/29/09

Will probably get within next week, will begin setting up outline for study soon after.

Level 2 Here I Come!!!

2009-07-28T11:09:00.003-04:00

I just registered for Level 2 in 2010. $620 dollars with the discount.

I plan on starting prep as soon as the books arrive, I don't know when Stalla/Schweser will have their courses ready but I expect to enroll in one of them.

I will of course be updating the site more regularly as I go thru the studies. I fully expect Level 2 to be a beast because of the high passing rate this year.