53 Comments
 

Congrats! Hopefully your firm covers your yearly dues. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Sequoia

Jesus christ, finally done with this time-sucking program. I will never take another test again. All I wanted to say, feels like a breath of fresh air to get control of my time back

Congratulations

SafariJoe, wins again!
 

For L3, I used Kaplan and the CFA material and I got beneath the 10% percentile rank (I passed L1 and L2 on my first tries). Guess I just suck at L3. 

 

Congrats. I know its a bitch. How much do you think you retained?

Only two sources I trust, Glenn Beck and singing woodland creatures.
 

Congrats

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
sophiiisingh

What is MM

Mark Meldrum

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Congrats. Level 2 in 3 weeks myself, 340h in currently. Doing it strictly on CFA material, haven't used either of my prep exams yet. Should hit 400+ hours.

Going to start looking for an ER role after L2.

 

Thanks a bunch man, sounds like you've also completed it so good stuff. Yeah the tough thing w/ CFA is that the actual curriculum is largely useless (though they do have good events). Which is fine as there are other certifications like it but it is also slowly losing its value -- emphasis though on SLOWLY. In 30yrs it won't matter at all, in 20yrs it'll be somewhat useful but over the next 10-15yrs it's extremely useful in AM / SS ER / WM / IR / endowment & other allocation roles (or at very least it'll give you a leg up vs candidates that don't have it). So it's a tough spot in some ways to justify the time investment considering the above for a lot of folks. I myself only took it because my firm basically forced me to, though now it's nice to have it because it gives me better exit opps to other AMs or to some of the roles above

 

I did get the charter this year after the May exam. I don't work in ER or AM like you do, so I appreciate the take. It sounds like it's less of a gatekeeper than it was previously in the industry. BUT. I don't know if I necessarily agree that it's losing its value. Folks I have met are in the industry are very well aware of what it is and appreciate the rigor of the curriculum and the discipline it takes to get it. A very surprisingly high number who would not directly benefit from the charter tell me how they attempted a level or two once upon a time. And I work in real estate investment, which is the most paint-chip-eating segment of finance where it's arguably the least applicable. 

The other hypothesis I have is that hiring standards are cyclical and that the lessened importance of the charter over the past five-ten years in hiring is just a function of the labor market. I wouldn't be surprised that if we return to an environment where we have more resumes competing for each job, hiring managers are going to start talking about the charter again. Who knows though. In any event, hope you enjoy the events and most importantly take advantage of having your life back mang

 

Congrats..I’m a bit late to the party here, I have one month left until I take level 3. Did you find lvl 3 easier than 2? I ask because the material seems easier for me but I also have 5 years experience in wealth management/portfolio management.  Any tips on how to hit it home this last month? I’ve been just doing a crazy amount of questions. 

 

I used to work with a guy who was a Navy SEAL and then he got his CFA charter after the military. Smart guy.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

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"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

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