Is Modern Portfolio Theory flawed ???Is CFA material used in real world by portfolio managers?

Incoming freshman studying MPT, CFA and Investing. Q1- why is variance and standard deviation used for risk .If a security is more volatile ,how does it mean it has more risk.Never understood the concept.Having read the book by Howard marks the most important thing I think that this concept is untrue. Q2-is all this CFA and modern portfolio theory correct regarding in real investment world. many of its concept such as effiency are useless in the real world for PM's. Q3-Is quant and financial engineering used mostly for derivatives purpose and complex strategies and not for normal long only AM/HF?

5 Comments
 
 

I'll take a stab at this.

Q1- Using standard deviation as measure risk basically means stocks that move 5% are riskier than those that move 0.5% per day. Think of Tesla vs a utility company. It's not perfect but it's a good general indication.

Q2-I'm unsure what you're asking.

Q3-There’s lots of AM/HF the provide quant products, think Blackrock, AQR, Two Sigma, DE Shaw. Etc.

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