I was wondering what you guys thought about the C.F.A I'm currently studying for it and was wondering if it would open doors for me to a trading position. I have three years of previous finance experience. Thanks,
Nope. Probably will not open many doors for you. Level 1 CFA candidates are a dime a dozen. Plus financial analysis will have little to do with the type of trading that 95% of the people on this board do.
You will make a perfect COG in the MACHINE... And can help sell financial products for the rest of your life... And have a very nice career. This is called the "sell side" of the Securities Industry... Brokerage, investment banking, etc. The "buy side" of the business... Where you find the hedge funds and quants and traders... Does not have much use for CFA drones.
quant is way off a CFA will not open doors in trading or investment banking/ brokerage ... If you want to be a back office person/ corporate finance analyst it helps ...
It is useful for many financial positions, particularly analyst or portfolio manager. And certainly, increasing ones knowledge on financial theory and practice will not make one a drone. How one uses knowledge is up to ones own active mind. It is a great program for those interested in learning finance in a self study format. I think it could be useful to the trader if for no other reason than giving one a grounding in how mainstream portfolio management views the market/investments and makes asset allocation decisions.
Then what do trading firms look for...I thought the CFA was equivalent to a masters from an ivy league school.
depends on what you mean by trading firm. "ivy" league is more a matter of getting into the big prestigious firms, Investment banks, etc, because they hire from that pool. Otherwise, Stat, mathematics, strong programming skills, and an idea of how to make money. U have to be entrepreneurial.
What are the skill differences b/w a PM and Trader? Must they possess the same analysis, research, financial understanding? Or is it that their goals are just different, i.e., a PM must manage a portfolio based on a policy statement whereas a trader just wants to make money?
CFA is useless UNLESS you are a top grad from an Ivy league school. But, to have one with say a degree from Bumfuck State is not going to open any doors. There is a major bubble in CFAs.... READ From 1963 (when the CFA designation was first awarded) to 2006, approximately 78,000 people from at least 126 different countries have been awarded the right to use the CFA designation, 68,000 of them in the years since 1990. As of 2006, more than 116,000 more people are currently enrolled to take one of the examinations. (However, a very small number of the most senior CFA charterholders who took their exams before 1970 were "grandfathered" in, having sat only the equivalent of today's Level III test instead of undergoing the current three level exam procedure.* *Courtesy Wikipedia
I don't think the designation would hurt anyone. Between the books and three exams your looking at a small investment of $5K. Now you can't be a charter holder unless you have related experience (this was put into place due to tons of foreigners coming here and acing the exam but not having real world experience). From my experience with interviews, firms tend to look for great quant skills, some Excel/VBA/C+/C# programming skills, discipline, motivation and sometimes......a reputable MBA. Take all of the opinions here with a grain of salt, depending on their industry and location, different firms are looking for different traits.