Exam Introduction ... and my first day of cramming...

Yesterday, I started my preparation for CFA Level-I. I have registered for Level I about 3 months ago, but only skimmed thru a few books so far. The sooner you register the cheaper the exam fee is. You have to become very comfortable with CFA Institute’s website. I have bought several referral books, which I will list as I read them. CFA Institute’s bookstore sells it’s own curriculum material as well as several other reference books from other publishers. The Institute also publishes a study session outline document that clearly specifies the Learning Outcome Statements (LOS) for each subject. You can see the subject area focus for Level-I in the pie chart at the end of this article. The first book in the CFA Curriculum – “Ethical and Professional Standards” is available for free download from their website. This subject constitutes about 15% of the exam … which makes it very important. I have skimmed this book before and have already memorized all the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct. I have spent about 4 hours yesterday going through the guidelines and examples of a couple of the standards. I have five more standards to finish reading and then there is a new LOS on Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS). My experience so far is that the material for Ethical and Professional Standards is huge and we need to quickly understand and memorize some of the key statements. One doesn’t need a business or finance background to assimilate the material but in the examples you will hear a lot of roles/terms in the investment management (IM) and investment banking (IB) sector and has actually helped me understand the differences between buy-side vs sell-side etc. I really liked the Ethics and Standards and wondered why all industries don’t have such standards. Most of the time even the most ethical people go by their instincts and sometimes they may be wrong, instead if there were such standards say in technology industry, construction industry, not to mention the airline/credit card/cellular customer service ….they would know exactly what to do. Ofcourse it is still your responsibility to be ethical and practice the standards.

Qui suis-je? (Who am I?)

I was recently selected as Time's Person of the Year. Well technically, everyone who ever used internet was named as the Person of the Year. After reading the stupid article, I did some googling and found that I am in the company of Ayatollah Khomeini, Adolf Hitler and our beloved president George W Bush (actually twice!!). Now, not many people think that is a great group to be included in, do they? And do you how this tradition of "Person of the Year" started? - It is believed that the Time Editors came up with this idea during a slow news week in 1927. Well, it is a great idea but they should have also come up with a set of rules and standards.

Anyway, Who am I? I tried to answer in a single sentence, but it's impossible. Let me introduce myself by saying that I work in the Technology Sector and knocking on 30.. Oh My God!!! I feel like one of my feet is already in the grave. I live in Chicago with my beautiful/loving/caring wife (Just trying to be nice... if she ever discovers who this CFA_Blogger really is?). Many would consider my career as successful and I am proud of it, but I don't feel my work as challenging anymore. I always wanted to do an MBA and have been playing with that idea for quite a while now. I did lot of research and concluded that full-time MBA from a top-tier university is the way to go, if I wanted to change careers. I have also noticed that CFA is a great designation to have along with an MBA, if I wanted to work in the financial sector. I am not going to discuss how or if I will get admitted to a top-tier MBA university, but I have strapped my seat belts and begun my journey to CFA and MBA. I may or may not be able to change careers at the age of 33-34 (when I will be hopefully done with CFA and MBA...), but that aside, it will be a great achievement in itself if I fulfill that goal.

Why this blog? You must be thinking I am crazy to have such lofty goals and wasting all my time on the internet writing stories about myself. There are three reasons why I started this blog. Firstly, there is very little information online about personal experiences of CFA Candidates. All we hear is that CFA is too tough to crack and blah .. blah ... blah... So I wanted to convey my experiences as I go thru each stage of it. Secondly, I thought it would be a great tool to motivate me to stick to my schedule and post something new everyday. Lastly, you must have already noticed that I lack writing skills. Stick with me and I will improve my writing skills along the journey and will make it one heck of a ride.