Good luck on the CFA thing, but one question comes to mind......would you expect someone to trust you with their money? At a beginner level? Not trying to be snarky, but realistic. Seriously, I wish you luck, but just don't blow out your account, or worse.......someone else's.
Hey Jeff, Thanks for your comment! I am actually a regular reader of your blog and I wanted to mention how much I enjoy it. Reading your blog is kind of like watching the show Entourage with a trader as the main character. It's motivating! To answer your question, no, I would not expect someone to trust me with their money and I don't expect to trade anyone else's money at this point (maybe when I reached the expert level?) Right now, all I wanted to do is just follow my plan and see how far I could go with my underfunded account. Preservation of capital will be my number one priority. I will do my best to prevent my account from blowing up. PA
I've been trading for 30+ years and think I might reach the expert level in another 30 years. Seriously, it was a bunch of 80 year old guys who started trading in the 1920's who taught me to trade. I'm glad you realize your limitations, which is an excellent first step. Your idea of playing a good defensive game is an excellent second step, so at least you realize what you need to do. 2 positive steps that are rational is good.....most people around here are pie in the sky. Just for what it's worth, most CFA's I know are really lousy traders. I never did anything like that....did take the series 3 so I could fill a little paper when that was the rule. What a waste, in 20 years, I might have filled 20 orders helping out a friend. I like to come over to ET as I read the boards and find a lot of fade opportunities. One key to success is to find a loser, encourage him to tell you what he's doing, then fade him. Percentage wise, you'll win, but if he's a leaker, the vig and slippage might hurt you. Still, fading losers are good if your transaction costs are low and can be a good % play. And there are a lot of net losers over here Good luck to you. Jeff
Hi Jeff, I have been trading on and off for about 8 years. I am learning to trade through getting the bits and pieces from other traders. Livermore, Niederhoffer, Soros, and the market wizards are some of my major sources of education, but I have to make a lot of assumptions on how they trade. Given my education are mostly assumptions, it would probably take me a long time before I reach the expert level. (If I can get there, that is.) I think the reason why most CFA are lousy traders is because most CFA are career-focused. Most of them get into the investment industry not because they have a genuine desire to make money from the market, but because they just wanted to earn the high salary associated with managing money. I am sure there are a few of them that have a genuine interest in making money from the market, but there are very few out there. (some may have gotten distracted by their salary tho) Personally, I just want to get the CFA to get a good paying job, to live a normal life, and to fund my account. Thanks for the advices and the encouragement! PA
No trading today. I am just going to wait for the market to get me out. No matter what happened, my capital is preserved in this trade. I got a phone call this morning for another interview tomorrow. This one is for a contract role, which isn't too bad. So, the whole day I am just preparing myself for interviews. PA
CFA is not just to trade/manage others' money. It is also a desired skill for some kinds of jobs in the financial services industry that have nothing to do with OPM. As are Series 7 and other certs.
By law you need a Series 7 for sales of securities.....you're not absolutely required by law to have a CFA to manage money. If you were good enough, you could manage a $20 Billion hedge fund without a CFA without problems except registration under the new rules. Jeff
No trades today. I just adjusted my stops to lock in a bit more profit. There is just too much indecision in the NZD/USD and I don't feel too comfortable with it now. I also went on an interview for an accounting role in a food industry. I didn't feel too good about it, since I couldn't prepare for it due to lack of a job description (I got this interview through an agent). I was a bit nervous and my mouth was so dried that I could hardly put together a sentence. Tomorrow is an interview for another accounting role. This one will be in the financial industry. Hopefully, I could perform better in this interview. I am going to have to bring a bottle of water. PA
Definitely, if someone has a good track record would surely beat someone with just a piece of paper. Getting the track record is much more harder than getting the CFA designation. That may be why most of the CFA charterholders I've seen are mutual fund managers instead of hedge fund managers. PA