Thirty-eight percent of the December™ Level I™ test-takers test-takers learn by email today that they’re one step closer to being able to guarantee investment results. As for your humble correspondent … Continue reading »
CFA
As it turns out, the only piece of commenter advice on taking the CFA Level I Exam that I actually followed was “don’t have lunch at Headquarters, the strip club across the street from the Javits Center.” Initially, I wasn’t sure about this advice. When I left the Javits Center for lunch, a part of me felt that I owed it to myself, to Bess, and to our readers to have my CFA lunch at a strip club. But after spending two hours in a shabby cavernous room with terrible lighting surrounded by bored and disillusioned people unhappily doing things that they had memorized but didn’t really feel in their hearts, I couldn’t have handled a second-rate strip club.
So I went to a Mexican place in Chelsea and had a nice lunch surrounded by fully clothed people. To make sure that exam conditions closely replicated my successful practice exam, I also had two reasonably strong margaritas. That, plus my watch stopping in the middle of lunch, added a little excitement to my walk back to the Javits Center.
I can’t really tell you whether not going to Headquarters was good advice, since I didn’t do a controlled experiment. I suspect it was, and I arrived back at the Javits Center cheerful, refreshed, and swaying slightly. In any case, here are some other hard-won insights for those of you considering the CFA:
Continue reading »
I’m back. Did I miss anything?
My imaginary CFA results are mid-80% area for both the morning and afternoon sessions. That sounds like it predicts a pass on Saturday, though probably not at a 95% level of significance. (Does it? I have no idea.) The effect of 1 drink before / 1 during the afternoon is hard to discern although there were more wrong answers towards the end of the afternoon session than at the beginning. Also I was heartily sick of it by the end. Are there really II more levels of this thing? Do they have more stuff on them? That seems excessive.
Now I’m not going to run afoul of ethics guidelines by discussing anything on the mock exam, or real exam, or anywhere else. (Also, this is important: CFA Institute, if you’re reading this, we’re just kidding about the whole guaranteeing returns thing.) But the sense I get is that people find the ethics section particularly daunting, which, COME ON PEOPLE, you are not doing much for public perceptions of your industry. Nonetheless, as a public service for those taking the test on Saturday and looking to sharpen your skills, here’s an extra practice ethics question suggested by a reader. Continue reading »
This is shaping up to be CFA week for me, and with my impending triumph/humiliation I’ve pretty much stopped thinking about much else. I’ve also stopped reading about much else, putting aside Trotsky temporarily to focus on those six stupid books. Yesterday was corporate finance – I can now unlever and relever betas like a champ – and portfolio management, which I got about halfway through before falling asleep. Today is equity and fixed income. The end is in sight!
But there’s still occasionally time to think about blast-from-the-past favorite topics, like the slow-motion disaster that is the US regulatory effort to end official reliance on ratings agencies. The latest is the OCC, which released a proposed rule today that will change the definition of “investment grade” securities, which banks can invest in, from “rated in one of the four highest rating categories by two or more NRSROs” to this: Continue reading »
Attentive readers may recall that a while back I signed up to take the CFA Level I exam, in order to (1) pursue my passion for standardized testing,(2) expose the secret behind-the-scenes workings of America’s trillion-dollar financial-analysis-certification business, and (3) have a major institution to stand behind my guarantees of consistent above-market investment returns. I wrote a post about it, and then mostly forgot all about it.
Thinking that the exam might be sometime in December, I looked into it a bit more this weekend. Here are some things that I learned that I didn’t previously know, though you might have:
1. The exam is given using pencil and paper at the Javits Center. I had vague visions of the anonymous computer lab where you take the Series 7 on computers from the mid-1980s. Now I have to go buy pencils.
2. All of its contents. Actually I’d read maybe 100 pages of the ethics reading but then I got bored and stopped.
3. It’s this Saturday. Oops! Continue reading »
If yes, did you get the plain boring old one or the one with the tassels? Continue reading »
Jeffrey Chiang: Reason Number One You Should Be Happy You Failed The Level III CFA Exam
By Bess Levin
Two days ago, the results of the Level III CFA exam were released. Fifty-one percent of you breathed sighs of gratitude and relief. After years of sacrifice and moments of crippling self-doubt, you were officially granted permission to place those little letters next to your name. Forty-nine percent of you were left feeling a bit less satisfied with how the June test panned out. We haven’t spoken with everyone, but in our professional opinions, we’re guessing most who failed are at stage two of Kübler-Ross. You’re so angry you can hardly see straight and you’ve fired off at least two emails to everyone associated with the Institute, Subject: “I see your three little letters and raise you three of my own: S a D” followed by a picture of a rabbit with a knife through it and a little card that says “YOU,” and then later, a photo you took using the self-timer function in which, and it’s kind of dark so it’s hard to make out, it looks like you’ve arranged hundreds of small candles spelling out the letters ‘c’ ‘f’ ‘a’ on your front lawn? And are attempting to put out the flames with your own piss?
And while many people have tried to tell you that it’s not a big deal, that you can take it again next year, that it doesn’t reflect who you are, that it happens to a lot of guys, nothing has seemed to work. You’re still really, really angry and deep down inside, you’re really sad, sad that you’ve been denied access to the club where apparently now they’ll let in just over half of anyone who shows up to take the goddamn test.
You shouldn’t be. In fact, you dodged a bullet. Continue reading »
Fifty-one percent of Level 3 takers have reason to feel really good right about now: the opportunity to attend CFA Camp is so close you can taste it. For the rest of you, whose state of mind is not helped by the fact that more people passed this year than last and yet the Chartered Financial Analyst gods chose not to bring you along for the ride, the promise land is still nothing but a dream. And, as long as we’re all being honest here, the last several months (/years) have been a nightmare from which you feel like you might never wake up. Continue reading »
Which One Of You Is Gonna Pass A Stone During The December CFA And Still Finish The Exam?
By Bess Levin
In a few short weeks, many financial services employees will begin the soul-crushing, life-sucking process of studying for Level I CFA exam given in December. So you that you don’t look back and realize you wasted 4+ months of your time on earth, most of you are probably hoping to pass. And sure, that’s a good goal. Cute, even. But if you want to really make a name for yourself and not be had by a would-be lawyer, you’re going to have to do better than that. Like going into labor during the exam better. Continue reading »
Thirty-nine percent of Level 1 takers and forty-three percent of Level II’ers are likely feeling prettay prettay prettay good at the moment, possibly on account of celebratory morning drinks or the realization that the promise land is within reach. The rest of you are probably in not as great a place, on account of having just thrown away the last 4-6 months of your lives. Continue reading »
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MBAs
Investment Manager Sues Playboy Modeling Ex-Girlfriend For Writing Herself Blank Check, Tuition Fees
By Bess Levin
Until 2007, investment manager Andrew Oberwager and his girlfriend Karolina Stefansi were a happy, highly educated couple in love. Oberwager was a PM at Columbus Circle Partners, who had earned the right to not only put the letters C, F, and A after his signature, but M and D as well, having graduated from Harvard Med school before getting into investing. Stefanski, left, was a former Playboy model from Germany, who had earned her journalism degree from Suffolk University (the $33,000 tuition for which Obes covered). Thing were good. Then MDCFA maybe supposedly started an affair with a chick from Texas he met online, a relationship Stefanski was not cool with even though it probably meant nothing to Oberwags (i.e. he didn’t put her through vet school) and she took it to mean that upon breaking up, she was entitled to write herself a check from his account for $80,000.
Stefanski…contends the blank check was for her personal use. She wrote it out for $80,000 when she decided to return to Germany….Attorney Kurosh Marjani is arguing, however, that Stefanski had no authority to write out a blank check for $80,000. The blank check was meant to pay for household expenses, Oberwager testified Tuesday
Also? He wants the $33,00 back, too. Plus interest. Continue reading »
