CFA Useful for Quant Fund?
I am heading into a Quant Hedge fund. Would it be at all useful to take CFA exams? I have started studying but not yet registered, just wondered if it will get any respect in the industry.
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No don't waste your time
CFA? lol....no, not at all. However, peruse the CFA curriculum here. If any of the things listed seem like a foreign language...then yes, you should study the material. You don't need to take the actual test...the designation does not help you (tho, it wouldn't hurt when you are looking for a job some years down the road).
Even more useful would be knowing how to program machine learning in Python. If you are not a proficient python programmer...then i would spend my time learning Python first, then learn how to implement TensorFlow and/or PyTorch....THEN study CFA material.
this is awful advice. who is juvenile enough to think some hedge fund is going to hire you because you can use pytorch lol. OP learn computer science from first principles
i would assume if already has a job at a quant fund that he has basic comp sci literacy.
Thank you for the advice, from speaking with my interviewers they have informed me that, "my finance knowledge is more than adequate for the role I'm in". Not saying I'm a master or anything, but I did an internship at a BB last summer and read a lot in preparation (much of which overlaps with the level 1 curriciulum).
My main thing here is wondering whether it will keep open any exit opps? for instance if I did 2 few years at a quant HF, then I wanna move to a bank or fundamental HF or some or asset manager or something, would it keep more opportunities like that open if I had the CFA on my resume, to sort of provide credibility to the notion that I do know finance, not just how to code.
Thank you.
what is your role at the quant fund? what is your computer programming experience? what was your college major?
Ofc, CFA is the minimum knowledge required for the industry. So def take it. CFA won't get you a job but will provide you with the basics you need to know for working either in a HF or an AM. Additionally, there are many AM firms (I do not know about HF), that force you to study the CFA. So better do it now than later so that you can focus on the job. Just my humble advice.
It gets progressively harder as you get further into the quant career. As you get older, you get more expensive, and why would an employer want to pay you for a non-relevant skillset you've spent years working on, when a kid fresh out of college costs much less?
That makes sense, but what I'm curious about is: would being a charter holder expand that window a little bit? Like is there some situation, where maybe a quant 18-months into his career probably couldn't switch over to a fundamental HF normally, but that same person with a CFA does have a chance?
in order to go over to pure fundamental, requires a completely different skillset...you would most likely need to do 2 years in investment banking and then 2 years in private equity. The CFA is not enough to skip those steps in most situations (because you'll be competing with those people) but it would help to tell your story.
However, your quant experience might be useful in itself to some funds that straddle the line between worlds.
To your specific question - no, it won't be of much practical use in the role you are headed into and probably wouldn't be for the first couple years. There may be some elements of it that end up creeping in - but nothing you wouldn't be able to pick up quickly, look up online or find without going through the curriculum.
To the more existential question of 'is it worth it for you' - My advice to you is to think about your career and look at some of the various positions, paths and most importantly firms that you may want to work for and see whether it's listed as a qualification, people there already have it, etc. That will tell you the applicability. I've seen plenty of really smart people in roles that should require a CFA not have it - and vice versa. You don't need to make the decision today, and frankly i wouldn't sit for it until you have a year or so under your belt at your current role. You could pass all three levels in the next year and a half and you still couldn't be a CFA for a few more years since you have a work requirement.
Long story short - focus on maximizing your skills for your upcoming role, evaluate your career once you get into that and then you can make an informed decision about whether you should get it or not.
yup, the same is true at the top end of software engineering. Its like being a professional sports player, most are only really valuable for a short period of time.
Relative to the other stuff (brand name of your current company, brand name of your university, resume content) I'm skeptical it's worth it, as long as you show some reasonable interest in the role somewhere else.
If you want to spend 300 hours on something, go write up some value investing thesis or follow macro or learn machine learning. Much better allocation of resources.
No, totally useless if you stay on the quant track. If you want to switch over to fundamentals it's not enough by itself anyway, and you would need to start from the bottom after completing an MBA or something similar (as well as taking a huge paycut).
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