I've been on "vacation" for a week and have been just reading my notes and doing problems. I don't know if I'll pass. I haven't done any mock exams because I haven't really felt confident enough in EVERYTHING to do that. Also, I still haven't done any problems for study sessions 16-18, though I did recently finish reading, summarizing in word, and doing example problems for them. I'll get that done over the next 4 days, and use Friday as formula memorization and polish. I've done so many damn questions in the last couple weeks that if I fail it won't be for lack of effort or study time... it will be something about the approach I guess. I went really heavy on reading and comprehension early on without doing as many problems as I would have liked.
I started studying for this thing 4 freakin months ago... I have trouble remembering stuff that happened last week, so to retain something I learned 4 months ago in vivid exam prepped detail is quite a challenge. Like a huge challenge. Like a challenge on par with successfully summoning a boner and doing Rosie O'Donnell (I don't think I'd be able to do it). Anyway, 5 days left... review for 3 sessions to go. I have to sleep now cuz it's 4 am. Hopefully my sleep schedule will fix itself by Saturday.
I will be so pissed if I fail this thing.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
15 down, 3 to go
My plan to finish my first run through by May 8th is not going to happen any more. Things went a little slower over the last week because of some stuff at work that, although positive for me, cost me time on updating resume, writing a cover letter, and so on. I don't know if I mentioned what my job was, but although the company is pretty reputable, I am way the fuck at the bottom of the totem pole; I'm on par with the mail guy. A manager approached me about an analyst position (a modest one, but it has the word analyst in the title so I'm happy). I'm pretty sure their deal is they'd like someone with analyst education, but they don't have the budget to pay for someone with analyst experience as well. Fancy title with shitty pay check? I'll take it! Can't be any worse than what I'm being paid right now. It's not a done deal though. At this point, I'm a turd in the pile, hoping to be scooped out and polished off for the gem within. We'll see about that though.
Whether or not I get that, the CFA level 2 exam is closing in fast, and I feel like I'll be more or less ready. The Fixed Income section really didn't do what I was expecting it to. I recall from level one that bonds with embedded puts and calls would converge on specific values as interest levels reached certain points (and yield curves for option free bonds would continue their more natural curves, if that makes sense). CFA 1 taught how find the max/min range wherein the fair price for an option embedded bond would lie, but then it said pinpointing a price was beyond the scope of the course. Naturally, I assumed that pinpointing this expected fair price, with a certain level of probability associated with it, would be something that came up in level two. Nope. No mention of it.
It actually focused very little on valuating conventional bonds. The 14th study session had a general run through of some of the theories out there that applied to fixed income instruments in general (much of which was redundant with level 1). It had a big chunk on credit ratings, and what factors bond rating agencies and investors will be concerned about, and so on. The 15th study session had a lot on MBSs and ABSs, with particular attention to the nominal spread, Z-spread, and Option Adjusted Spread.
Fixed Income was a very reasonable section, and much less quantitative than I expected. The math was there, but it was more in the background. For example, it showed how to draw up a binomial tree for an MBS or ABS based on treasury spot rates and adding a certain amount of spread until the pricing is right (PVof CFs = Price of security). I can't imagine them asking a multiple choice question on the exam where you have to draw a whole fucking binomial tree with all kinds of forward rates to consider (let alone 3 of them if you want to calculate duration and convexity). And a Monte Carlo Sim? Forget about it, unless they bring mainframe computers for all the candidates to work with... They're guaranteed to ask questions about how you would do these things conceptually, or even one branch of a tree I guess? But even drawing a branch would be kinda stupid... Anyways, Fixed Income was not so bad at all and I think I can suck up good marks in this section. Or I may just end up sucking. Whateva.
Derivatives on the other hand... this was one of my few 50-70 regions for the level 1 exam, and I expect it to be difficult in L2 again. I've been reading SS 16, and it's going slowly. The formulas are long, and many. Conceptually, it's just outright tougher than the other stuff in here, in my opinion. I can see why these instruments were used to fuck around so much leading up to the recession; they are trixy bastard. You can make them about as ambiguous and misleading as you want (and many did).
What a fun post that was! thanks for reading
Whether or not I get that, the CFA level 2 exam is closing in fast, and I feel like I'll be more or less ready. The Fixed Income section really didn't do what I was expecting it to. I recall from level one that bonds with embedded puts and calls would converge on specific values as interest levels reached certain points (and yield curves for option free bonds would continue their more natural curves, if that makes sense). CFA 1 taught how find the max/min range wherein the fair price for an option embedded bond would lie, but then it said pinpointing a price was beyond the scope of the course. Naturally, I assumed that pinpointing this expected fair price, with a certain level of probability associated with it, would be something that came up in level two. Nope. No mention of it.
It actually focused very little on valuating conventional bonds. The 14th study session had a general run through of some of the theories out there that applied to fixed income instruments in general (much of which was redundant with level 1). It had a big chunk on credit ratings, and what factors bond rating agencies and investors will be concerned about, and so on. The 15th study session had a lot on MBSs and ABSs, with particular attention to the nominal spread, Z-spread, and Option Adjusted Spread.
Fixed Income was a very reasonable section, and much less quantitative than I expected. The math was there, but it was more in the background. For example, it showed how to draw up a binomial tree for an MBS or ABS based on treasury spot rates and adding a certain amount of spread until the pricing is right (PVof CFs = Price of security). I can't imagine them asking a multiple choice question on the exam where you have to draw a whole fucking binomial tree with all kinds of forward rates to consider (let alone 3 of them if you want to calculate duration and convexity). And a Monte Carlo Sim? Forget about it, unless they bring mainframe computers for all the candidates to work with... They're guaranteed to ask questions about how you would do these things conceptually, or even one branch of a tree I guess? But even drawing a branch would be kinda stupid... Anyways, Fixed Income was not so bad at all and I think I can suck up good marks in this section. Or I may just end up sucking. Whateva.
Derivatives on the other hand... this was one of my few 50-70 regions for the level 1 exam, and I expect it to be difficult in L2 again. I've been reading SS 16, and it's going slowly. The formulas are long, and many. Conceptually, it's just outright tougher than the other stuff in here, in my opinion. I can see why these instruments were used to fuck around so much leading up to the recession; they are trixy bastard. You can make them about as ambiguous and misleading as you want (and many did).
What a fun post that was! thanks for reading
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Minor Burnout
I fucked up a bit on Friday and Saturday... I had planned to finish up session 12 (last equity session), and hopefully do 13 too (which is a small one). I thought I'd be able to finish those two, and even have some time left to review. I'm going to sound like a whiny little bitch right now, but all the hours of study got to me, and I was burned out. I did study about an hour Friday night when I got home from work, but I was so tired that I just couldn't focus on the reading, and I was in a rough mood too. I was lethargic from lack of physical activity, and so many hours of work, study, sleep, and repeat. I collapsed in my bed at about 7:45 pm and woke up around 10:30 pm.
The plan was to keep going, but when I sat down and looked at the bland black and blue text in my Stalla book, I had a mental failure and just said fuck it. 'Fuck it' became a phrase that was kind of my theme for that night, and well into the following morning.
I played some piece of shit computer game that I had, and just rolled with it until about 9 am Saturday morning. That's like 11 hours of video games. It was a single player RPG, so it wasn't intense like the fucking crazy high school kids play online, but still... I was a damn zombie. At so many points I'd tilt my head away from the screen and catch a glimpse of my shitty sony alarm clock and its annoying green glow. It would flash X, Y, or Z o'clock in the morning. Each time I checked it, I'd stare at it for a little while. I'd groan a bit, and think about all the time I was wasting. I'd weigh that wasted time out against the prospect of continuing the ungodly collapse of will power that had suddenly come over me, and arrive unquestionably at what seemed like the most reasonable conclusion at the time: Fuck it.
What happened on Saturday is kind of a haze for me. I don't really remember what time I woke up, but I do remember that my coffee was orgasmic, even if my egg cheese and ham sandwiches were sub-par at best. I went to clean myself up cuz I felt like dog shit. I looked in the mirror, and I looked pretty rough; like an extra in a low budget vampire flick. Then it was study time. I managed to finish up study session 12 in about an hour and a half. I was mostly done it, so there's not much there for me to pat myself on the back about, but whatever, it was done. My room mate had some buddies over, so we played some X-box 360 until about 3:30 am, and then I went to bed.
Today's Sunday, and I feel refreshed. I went to the gym, ate good healthy food, and studied like an Asian from a poor family on a scholarship. I didn't start on SS13, I just reviewed older materials, and it went okay, nothing stands out as having given me problems.
To summarize all this, I learned a good lesson this weekend; study hours are not all equal; they have diminishing returns after a certain number of them in a week, and they also get worse in an unhealthy lifestyle. Coming into my burnout, I was finding it harder and harder to concentrate, and that was a function of having no balance at all in my life. The fact that I'd been eating not-too well, neglecting the gym, and ignoring all kinds of basic human needs/comforts to squeeze another couple of hours in was not helping me. That being said, I have some new policies on time budgeting; I need to hit the gym 3 times weekly for at least an hour each time so that I can keep feeling confident and alert. I need food ready to eat, sitting in tupperware so that I can just eat when I'm hungry, or have something to take to work and not worry about it. So far, the trend has been that if I have no food, I order a pizza/burger/deep fried bullshit. If my fridge is empty, I shouldn't go upstairs to study, I should go deal with that problem, and study after.
I'm on track to officially finish my first run through all study sessions by May 8th, as long as no more major burnouts happen. 54 days to go until the CFA exam.
The plan was to keep going, but when I sat down and looked at the bland black and blue text in my Stalla book, I had a mental failure and just said fuck it. 'Fuck it' became a phrase that was kind of my theme for that night, and well into the following morning.
I played some piece of shit computer game that I had, and just rolled with it until about 9 am Saturday morning. That's like 11 hours of video games. It was a single player RPG, so it wasn't intense like the fucking crazy high school kids play online, but still... I was a damn zombie. At so many points I'd tilt my head away from the screen and catch a glimpse of my shitty sony alarm clock and its annoying green glow. It would flash X, Y, or Z o'clock in the morning. Each time I checked it, I'd stare at it for a little while. I'd groan a bit, and think about all the time I was wasting. I'd weigh that wasted time out against the prospect of continuing the ungodly collapse of will power that had suddenly come over me, and arrive unquestionably at what seemed like the most reasonable conclusion at the time: Fuck it.
What happened on Saturday is kind of a haze for me. I don't really remember what time I woke up, but I do remember that my coffee was orgasmic, even if my egg cheese and ham sandwiches were sub-par at best. I went to clean myself up cuz I felt like dog shit. I looked in the mirror, and I looked pretty rough; like an extra in a low budget vampire flick. Then it was study time. I managed to finish up study session 12 in about an hour and a half. I was mostly done it, so there's not much there for me to pat myself on the back about, but whatever, it was done. My room mate had some buddies over, so we played some X-box 360 until about 3:30 am, and then I went to bed.
Today's Sunday, and I feel refreshed. I went to the gym, ate good healthy food, and studied like an Asian from a poor family on a scholarship. I didn't start on SS13, I just reviewed older materials, and it went okay, nothing stands out as having given me problems.
To summarize all this, I learned a good lesson this weekend; study hours are not all equal; they have diminishing returns after a certain number of them in a week, and they also get worse in an unhealthy lifestyle. Coming into my burnout, I was finding it harder and harder to concentrate, and that was a function of having no balance at all in my life. The fact that I'd been eating not-too well, neglecting the gym, and ignoring all kinds of basic human needs/comforts to squeeze another couple of hours in was not helping me. That being said, I have some new policies on time budgeting; I need to hit the gym 3 times weekly for at least an hour each time so that I can keep feeling confident and alert. I need food ready to eat, sitting in tupperware so that I can just eat when I'm hungry, or have something to take to work and not worry about it. So far, the trend has been that if I have no food, I order a pizza/burger/deep fried bullshit. If my fridge is empty, I shouldn't go upstairs to study, I should go deal with that problem, and study after.
I'm on track to officially finish my first run through all study sessions by May 8th, as long as no more major burnouts happen. 54 days to go until the CFA exam.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Well into study session 12
There are 58 days until the CFA exam. For any university midterm or final, with the number of study hours available in that time, especially with the limited other responsibilities I have, that would be an eternity. That's not the case here. I wouldn't say I'm "tripping balls" or "going ape shit crazy" but I realized it's coming; it's feeling less and less like some abstract goal for the future. Any candidates reading this, I suspect, are feeling the same way, even the douchebags going on the analyst forums and talking shit about how they already know everything, and how they're gonna (or already are) making bank at Goldman Sachs as an Analyst/Trader/Dickhead.
I flipped through the pages of the texts, and also opened up a couple of my notes at random to flip through those too. A lot of what I saw made me groan and say "Fuuuuck, I remember this kind of.... but how exactly did that go??? Was it... ugggh..." or "How did GAAP differ from IFRS on that one, and which was which?" or "what was that formula again?" and so on. I took a breath and told myself that I made a pretty thorough run through it, even though it was probably only fresh in my memory in chunks and for short bursts of time. I managed to grasp the stuff at some point, so come review time, it will hopefully come back to me quickly, and repetition should cement it.
The good news is that study sessions 10 and 11 (both equity) were surprisingly reminiscent of stuff that was in level 1. It described basic call and auction markets to start things off, then got into your standard valuation theories, with a couple new ones too that were no more complicated, in my opinion. At the tail end of 11, Dividend Growth Model and Gordon Growth Model came up again, and there was nothing in those readings that struck me as different from what I saw in level 1, aside from maybe something called the H model, (a type of GGM). CAPM, of course, came up on a few pages too. The new valuations, (that weren't in level 1) are Residual Income, and Free Cash Flows (both Equity and Debt), and possibly some other less significant ones that I'm forgetting about. None of them are brain busters, and don't get messy like the derivatives and even fixed income stuff did in level 1. They're just formulas that are pretty much plug and play. Overall, equity materials in this book are very understandable and not messy at all.
I think Derivatives and Fixed Income have the potential to be brain busters with messy math and awkward formulas, (Derivatives more than Fixed Income though). For now, I'm gonna try to finish Equities and also Alternative Investments (SS 13) by Saturday night so that I can have Sunday to go back and look at stuff I forgot from earlier. That, or I may just lay back, enjoy few shots of fine cuban rum, and then shoot myself in the face with a nicely sized shotgun. I'll play it by ear though.
I flipped through the pages of the texts, and also opened up a couple of my notes at random to flip through those too. A lot of what I saw made me groan and say "Fuuuuck, I remember this kind of.... but how exactly did that go??? Was it... ugggh..." or "How did GAAP differ from IFRS on that one, and which was which?" or "what was that formula again?" and so on. I took a breath and told myself that I made a pretty thorough run through it, even though it was probably only fresh in my memory in chunks and for short bursts of time. I managed to grasp the stuff at some point, so come review time, it will hopefully come back to me quickly, and repetition should cement it.
The good news is that study sessions 10 and 11 (both equity) were surprisingly reminiscent of stuff that was in level 1. It described basic call and auction markets to start things off, then got into your standard valuation theories, with a couple new ones too that were no more complicated, in my opinion. At the tail end of 11, Dividend Growth Model and Gordon Growth Model came up again, and there was nothing in those readings that struck me as different from what I saw in level 1, aside from maybe something called the H model, (a type of GGM). CAPM, of course, came up on a few pages too. The new valuations, (that weren't in level 1) are Residual Income, and Free Cash Flows (both Equity and Debt), and possibly some other less significant ones that I'm forgetting about. None of them are brain busters, and don't get messy like the derivatives and even fixed income stuff did in level 1. They're just formulas that are pretty much plug and play. Overall, equity materials in this book are very understandable and not messy at all.
I think Derivatives and Fixed Income have the potential to be brain busters with messy math and awkward formulas, (Derivatives more than Fixed Income though). For now, I'm gonna try to finish Equities and also Alternative Investments (SS 13) by Saturday night so that I can have Sunday to go back and look at stuff I forgot from earlier. That, or I may just lay back, enjoy few shots of fine cuban rum, and then shoot myself in the face with a nicely sized shotgun. I'll play it by ear though.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Visiting my mom in US of A
Today is April 1st; Good Friday. If you're a christian, that's a day of fasting cept for fish at dinner, and probably some kind of other rituals I'm not familiar with. For me, it's a paid day off work, and an opportunity to head down to the states and visit my mother.
I'm still on Study session 11, and according to the Stalla callendar, I should be on study session 14, so technically, I am 2-3 weeks behind (13 is a tiny study session). I don't feel that far behind because I was pretty thorough on my first run through, without exception. I'll explain a little further about why I'm comfortable (though not exstatic) about the progress I've made so far:
I mentioned that I'm doing word documents for every Stalla reading, and that those tended to be between 2500 and 3500 words or something like that. I've had a couple come in at just over 5000 and even 5500 words now. As I've been reading, I wouldn't move forward until I was sure I understood what I just read. I don't necessarily remember the stuff 3 weeks later, but having already learned it, all I need is a little bit of time with the material and some questions, and I'll be back up to speed really quickly.
On my flight to Cincinnati (from Toronto, that's where I live), I thought I would try some review; I opted to go with quantitative methods, since it's been a pretty long time since I looked at that one. Reading 11 is the core for Quant in level 2; you won't understand squat in the 12th and 13th readings if the 11th one doesn't make sense to you (I emphasize that I'm talking about individual readings now, not study sessions). In my notes for 12 and 13, I noticed I was referring back to the 11th study session a lot, and being the careless twat that I am, I forgot to print my study session 11 notes. Oops. I was pretty tired on that flight, and ended up just sleeping after skimming through both 12 and 13. I think next weekend I'll have a big review session of as much of what I've learned to date as possible. The goal for this weekend is to finish study session 11 off, and get started on the 12th. By next weekend I hope to be done the 12th, and starting up on that review session.
FYI, to anyone reading this, don't go to Cincinnati, it sucks, it's boring, and it's super old-school christian. I don't care for religion much and I tend to have very liberal social views, so for me especially it's not my kind of place. I do like reminding people that Obama is president though, that puts a smile on my face because a lot of them are very republican and still living in denial about that. It's just about 4 pm now, and I'm going out for dinner/drinks with a local buddy of mine at 9 or so. I'm going to rub Obama's presidency in his face a lot, I expect it to bother him a lot. I hope to get in an actual western style fist fight with him by the end of the night. Fingers crossed.
I'm still on Study session 11, and according to the Stalla callendar, I should be on study session 14, so technically, I am 2-3 weeks behind (13 is a tiny study session). I don't feel that far behind because I was pretty thorough on my first run through, without exception. I'll explain a little further about why I'm comfortable (though not exstatic) about the progress I've made so far:
I mentioned that I'm doing word documents for every Stalla reading, and that those tended to be between 2500 and 3500 words or something like that. I've had a couple come in at just over 5000 and even 5500 words now. As I've been reading, I wouldn't move forward until I was sure I understood what I just read. I don't necessarily remember the stuff 3 weeks later, but having already learned it, all I need is a little bit of time with the material and some questions, and I'll be back up to speed really quickly.
On my flight to Cincinnati (from Toronto, that's where I live), I thought I would try some review; I opted to go with quantitative methods, since it's been a pretty long time since I looked at that one. Reading 11 is the core for Quant in level 2; you won't understand squat in the 12th and 13th readings if the 11th one doesn't make sense to you (I emphasize that I'm talking about individual readings now, not study sessions). In my notes for 12 and 13, I noticed I was referring back to the 11th study session a lot, and being the careless twat that I am, I forgot to print my study session 11 notes. Oops. I was pretty tired on that flight, and ended up just sleeping after skimming through both 12 and 13. I think next weekend I'll have a big review session of as much of what I've learned to date as possible. The goal for this weekend is to finish study session 11 off, and get started on the 12th. By next weekend I hope to be done the 12th, and starting up on that review session.
FYI, to anyone reading this, don't go to Cincinnati, it sucks, it's boring, and it's super old-school christian. I don't care for religion much and I tend to have very liberal social views, so for me especially it's not my kind of place. I do like reminding people that Obama is president though, that puts a smile on my face because a lot of them are very republican and still living in denial about that. It's just about 4 pm now, and I'm going out for dinner/drinks with a local buddy of mine at 9 or so. I'm going to rub Obama's presidency in his face a lot, I expect it to bother him a lot. I hope to get in an actual western style fist fight with him by the end of the night. Fingers crossed.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Up to Study Session 11
10 of 18 (and half of the 11th) are down, I have 7 and a half more study sessions to go. I haven't posted in a while, and I don't regret that at all because I'm pretty sure nobody has seen this page yet. Still, I don't care, I didn't do this for others, I did this as a way to gather my thoughts as I went through this mess.
I have found that the material is not striking me as quantitatively focused as the CFA level 1 was. I mean there's math all over the place, but there aren't any amortization tables to draw, or interest vs. principal to split up, the whole thing seems more all encompassing and big-pictureish (just my opinion though). I'm satisfied with my ability to understand concepts and feel confident right now, but tomorrow I may be sweating and feeling anxious, and the day after, who knows.
I am spending more time than I did a month ago. The gym's been suffering, I haven't seen my best friend in 2 months, and I'm fine with that because in just over 2 months I'll get my social life primed up again. I've been neglecting my girlfriend a lot, and she's been very supportive actually. She's pretty hot so I'm surprised she's stuck around through all this neglect and borderline dismissiveness, but knowing she's there comforts me, likewise my family.
Anyway, life issues aside, I've noticed some redundancies between the equities material and some of the material that came up back in business school. Every business school seems to have a hard on for Michael Porter and his 5 stupid forces, and apparently the CFA is no different. the 5 forces have come up in two separate readings in Study Session 11, so maybe that means something... maybe it means nothing. Either way, that's not a concept I'm worried about.
So far, I can't really think of one section that's given me more trouble than another. I suppose study session 7 was weird because not many new concepts were introduced, in my opinion. It was heavy on ratio analysis and application of the ratios that were learned in level 1, but in a case study context. Memorizing the ratios (again) and doing the very few problems from the Stalla question bank is going to be my approach for it. I don't see it as something I'll spend a lot of time on, relative to something like equities, quant, or fixed income.
The rest of financial accounting just made sense. It made a lot of sense, and I found it easier than the later readings of level 1 (all the shit with the deferred tax assets/liabilities calculations got pretty messy) and also the leasing stuff and principal/interest stuff got messy too. Goodwill impairment is something that could get tricky since there are a couple different types now, (partial and full goodwill). IFRS and GAAP had different takes on how they should be used, and I can't for the life of me remember exactly how those treatments differed, and any attempt at making formulas for the two right now would be a wild guess... It's been a while since I looked at that stuff and I should probably have a refresher on previous readings that aren't so fresh in my mind any more.
I'm on target to finish studying everything with about 3 or 4 weeks remaining before the exam date. I've booked 2 weeks off work before the exam and plan on putting in no less than 120 hours of study time in that 2 week period.
I don't have much else to say, so I think I'll end the post here. If you read this, thanks.
I have found that the material is not striking me as quantitatively focused as the CFA level 1 was. I mean there's math all over the place, but there aren't any amortization tables to draw, or interest vs. principal to split up, the whole thing seems more all encompassing and big-pictureish (just my opinion though). I'm satisfied with my ability to understand concepts and feel confident right now, but tomorrow I may be sweating and feeling anxious, and the day after, who knows.
I am spending more time than I did a month ago. The gym's been suffering, I haven't seen my best friend in 2 months, and I'm fine with that because in just over 2 months I'll get my social life primed up again. I've been neglecting my girlfriend a lot, and she's been very supportive actually. She's pretty hot so I'm surprised she's stuck around through all this neglect and borderline dismissiveness, but knowing she's there comforts me, likewise my family.
Anyway, life issues aside, I've noticed some redundancies between the equities material and some of the material that came up back in business school. Every business school seems to have a hard on for Michael Porter and his 5 stupid forces, and apparently the CFA is no different. the 5 forces have come up in two separate readings in Study Session 11, so maybe that means something... maybe it means nothing. Either way, that's not a concept I'm worried about.
So far, I can't really think of one section that's given me more trouble than another. I suppose study session 7 was weird because not many new concepts were introduced, in my opinion. It was heavy on ratio analysis and application of the ratios that were learned in level 1, but in a case study context. Memorizing the ratios (again) and doing the very few problems from the Stalla question bank is going to be my approach for it. I don't see it as something I'll spend a lot of time on, relative to something like equities, quant, or fixed income.
The rest of financial accounting just made sense. It made a lot of sense, and I found it easier than the later readings of level 1 (all the shit with the deferred tax assets/liabilities calculations got pretty messy) and also the leasing stuff and principal/interest stuff got messy too. Goodwill impairment is something that could get tricky since there are a couple different types now, (partial and full goodwill). IFRS and GAAP had different takes on how they should be used, and I can't for the life of me remember exactly how those treatments differed, and any attempt at making formulas for the two right now would be a wild guess... It's been a while since I looked at that stuff and I should probably have a refresher on previous readings that aren't so fresh in my mind any more.
I'm on target to finish studying everything with about 3 or 4 weeks remaining before the exam date. I've booked 2 weeks off work before the exam and plan on putting in no less than 120 hours of study time in that 2 week period.
I don't have much else to say, so I think I'll end the post here. If you read this, thanks.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
First Entry - ridiculously exciting stuff
Hello internet people.
This is my first blog of ever, and if you're reading this, you're probably another candidate for the CFA. So to you I say good luck!
I'm pretty much one of the biggest sarcastic pessimists of ever, hence the title of this blog. Despite that title, I actually do plan on passing this thing, even if it kills me. The gym has taken a back seat, my warcraft addiction has disappeared (1 month off! yay for me!), the girlfriend has been grumbling about neglect (which is kind of not a new thing), and my friends are forgetting what my face looks like. But the point is this; to pass this thing, I am willing to take the four month sacrifice on my life to just sit around, read, scribble, read, scribble more, hit head on desk, read, and so on to pass this.
I'm no poindexter though; come the second I'm finished in June, for joy or for sorrow, I am going to obliterate my brain cells with unsettling amounts of booze. I am going to hit that bottle like it owes me child support. Til then, I got stuff to learn. Keep in mind that I am sarcastic. I am going to write a lot of things that are meant to be ironic, or exaggerations, or obvious lies/misrepresentations for the purpose of my own personal amusement. This blog is, in theory, a tool for me to better understand my progress and game plan as this exam approaches.
So here it goes:
General Strategy:
this is what I did for level 1 and so far it's doing the trick for me on level 2:
- Official CFA texts; they are collecting dust in my closet. I don't want to look at them, they hurt my eyes and my brain. In my opinion, they are an inefficient way to absorb the information required to pass these exams.
- Study notes; I went with stalla. schweiser's probably fine too, but that's just the one I went with at level one. No complaints, so I'm continuing to use it.
- Word docs: When I read the Stalla books, I have a word doc open and rewrite the important things in my own words. This helps comprehension, and gives me something I'll understand quickly come review time. I have one doc for every Stalla reading (sometimes Stalla combines related CFA readings. For example, readings 14,15, and 20 were combined to form a single Stalla reading.) They have roughly 2000-3500 words, and I anticipate that range to expand as I get deeper in. I have Word 2007 which allows me to write down math formulae too, that feature is very nifty. It's like lube; once you've used it, you wonder how you ever got along without it.
Sometimes I see other people's books, and they've highlighted the crap out of it. I don't do that because I don't think it does anything. Highlighting it won't make you learn it more, and seldom do I see a line that singlehandedly gives full comprehension of the entire paragraph on its own. Long story short, if I read something and find it's important, I rewrite it in my word doc, in my own words, and in full context. Highlighting is for lazy pussies.
- Problems/Questions: Stalla has a question bank with a shit ton of questions. I started out by trying to do them all, and then I realized, that's going to take too much time, especially if I'm doing redundant questions. My new policy is to do every third question. This allows me to be tested with questions that range across the full reading, instead of just being hammered with earlier questions, and never getting to the later ones. Another advantage to this approach is that come review time, I will still have unanswered questions to do that will cover all topics, instead of seeing that I've done all the earlier ones, and have only the end ones left to do. Odds are, I probably won't completely remember how to do all the earlier ones, so I should be doing questions on those early concepts later on.
- Lectures: Stalla recommends having read the text and learned the material before you go to a lecture. The format of the stalla course I'm doing has lectures at the George Brown U of T campus. I went to the first couple, but so far I find the 3 and a half hours are better spent studying. Also, I get fucking hungry in there, and that is annoying as shit. Also, many of the people in the class looked like douchebags. (This one white guy was wearing shades inside, slick christian bale style hair, a cheezy blazer, blackberry texting during lecture, and a look an his face that said he couldn't wait to be a greedy-ass banker. wtf is up with that? Why does Finance always seem to attract douchebags like that? And also, it was pretty much a sausage fest in there)
Anyway, another reason I don't like to go to them is that they have to cover a shit ton of concepts over that time, and although 3.5 hrs sounds like a lot, you can really only scratch the surface since they're covering an entire study session. I may go to some lectures later on, but I'm finding that they're kind of a waste of time. Just my opinion, feel free to disagree and write me posts or emails about how dumb I am for thinking that. I'll save myself some time and give my reply to above mentioned critical posts/emails in advance; I don't care, and go screw yourself.
- Time budgeting: I have the good fortune of not being tied down by kids, or a job that requires a lot of over time. I work 9 to 5:30, my commute is only 20 minutes walking, and all in all my life setup right now is pretty accommodating to my shut-in lifestyle choice for the next 4 months. I do 3 hours per weeknight, unless I go to the gym, which is probably twice on weekdays. I'll still squeeze an hour and a half in if I go to the gym. My weekends are also obligation free. Quitting warcraft 3 freed up a surprising amount of time in my life, so I get a minimum of 6 hours done on Saturdays, and maybe 4-5 on Sunday because I cook my food and put it into nice little tupperware containers so that I don't have to cook over the course of the week. Saturday nights I usually get wasted with my girlfriend/room mates/friends/minors I invite to my house from the internet. (they puke quicker than my friends, so it makes for a fun show)
-Flash cards: this would probably be more useful if my commute was significant. I'm not worried about memorizing all the formulae, and I think doing questions, reading the text regularly, and hand writing formulas a few times to memorize them is a better approach than looking at these flash cards.
I can't think of anything else to write. 110 days to go, so I better get back to studying.
I'm not attaching my study notes because I'm pretty sure it would be copywrite infringement, or if not that, illegal in some other kind of way. I don't feel like being sued by Stalla, so if you want to see my study notes for a given reading, email me.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
This is my first blog of ever, and if you're reading this, you're probably another candidate for the CFA. So to you I say good luck!
I'm pretty much one of the biggest sarcastic pessimists of ever, hence the title of this blog. Despite that title, I actually do plan on passing this thing, even if it kills me. The gym has taken a back seat, my warcraft addiction has disappeared (1 month off! yay for me!), the girlfriend has been grumbling about neglect (which is kind of not a new thing), and my friends are forgetting what my face looks like. But the point is this; to pass this thing, I am willing to take the four month sacrifice on my life to just sit around, read, scribble, read, scribble more, hit head on desk, read, and so on to pass this.
I'm no poindexter though; come the second I'm finished in June, for joy or for sorrow, I am going to obliterate my brain cells with unsettling amounts of booze. I am going to hit that bottle like it owes me child support. Til then, I got stuff to learn. Keep in mind that I am sarcastic. I am going to write a lot of things that are meant to be ironic, or exaggerations, or obvious lies/misrepresentations for the purpose of my own personal amusement. This blog is, in theory, a tool for me to better understand my progress and game plan as this exam approaches.
So here it goes:
General Strategy:
this is what I did for level 1 and so far it's doing the trick for me on level 2:
- Official CFA texts; they are collecting dust in my closet. I don't want to look at them, they hurt my eyes and my brain. In my opinion, they are an inefficient way to absorb the information required to pass these exams.
- Study notes; I went with stalla. schweiser's probably fine too, but that's just the one I went with at level one. No complaints, so I'm continuing to use it.
- Word docs: When I read the Stalla books, I have a word doc open and rewrite the important things in my own words. This helps comprehension, and gives me something I'll understand quickly come review time. I have one doc for every Stalla reading (sometimes Stalla combines related CFA readings. For example, readings 14,15, and 20 were combined to form a single Stalla reading.) They have roughly 2000-3500 words, and I anticipate that range to expand as I get deeper in. I have Word 2007 which allows me to write down math formulae too, that feature is very nifty. It's like lube; once you've used it, you wonder how you ever got along without it.
Sometimes I see other people's books, and they've highlighted the crap out of it. I don't do that because I don't think it does anything. Highlighting it won't make you learn it more, and seldom do I see a line that singlehandedly gives full comprehension of the entire paragraph on its own. Long story short, if I read something and find it's important, I rewrite it in my word doc, in my own words, and in full context. Highlighting is for lazy pussies.
- Problems/Questions: Stalla has a question bank with a shit ton of questions. I started out by trying to do them all, and then I realized, that's going to take too much time, especially if I'm doing redundant questions. My new policy is to do every third question. This allows me to be tested with questions that range across the full reading, instead of just being hammered with earlier questions, and never getting to the later ones. Another advantage to this approach is that come review time, I will still have unanswered questions to do that will cover all topics, instead of seeing that I've done all the earlier ones, and have only the end ones left to do. Odds are, I probably won't completely remember how to do all the earlier ones, so I should be doing questions on those early concepts later on.
- Lectures: Stalla recommends having read the text and learned the material before you go to a lecture. The format of the stalla course I'm doing has lectures at the George Brown U of T campus. I went to the first couple, but so far I find the 3 and a half hours are better spent studying. Also, I get fucking hungry in there, and that is annoying as shit. Also, many of the people in the class looked like douchebags. (This one white guy was wearing shades inside, slick christian bale style hair, a cheezy blazer, blackberry texting during lecture, and a look an his face that said he couldn't wait to be a greedy-ass banker. wtf is up with that? Why does Finance always seem to attract douchebags like that? And also, it was pretty much a sausage fest in there)
Anyway, another reason I don't like to go to them is that they have to cover a shit ton of concepts over that time, and although 3.5 hrs sounds like a lot, you can really only scratch the surface since they're covering an entire study session. I may go to some lectures later on, but I'm finding that they're kind of a waste of time. Just my opinion, feel free to disagree and write me posts or emails about how dumb I am for thinking that. I'll save myself some time and give my reply to above mentioned critical posts/emails in advance; I don't care, and go screw yourself.
- Time budgeting: I have the good fortune of not being tied down by kids, or a job that requires a lot of over time. I work 9 to 5:30, my commute is only 20 minutes walking, and all in all my life setup right now is pretty accommodating to my shut-in lifestyle choice for the next 4 months. I do 3 hours per weeknight, unless I go to the gym, which is probably twice on weekdays. I'll still squeeze an hour and a half in if I go to the gym. My weekends are also obligation free. Quitting warcraft 3 freed up a surprising amount of time in my life, so I get a minimum of 6 hours done on Saturdays, and maybe 4-5 on Sunday because I cook my food and put it into nice little tupperware containers so that I don't have to cook over the course of the week. Saturday nights I usually get wasted with my girlfriend/room mates/friends/minors I invite to my house from the internet. (they puke quicker than my friends, so it makes for a fun show)
-Flash cards: this would probably be more useful if my commute was significant. I'm not worried about memorizing all the formulae, and I think doing questions, reading the text regularly, and hand writing formulas a few times to memorize them is a better approach than looking at these flash cards.
I can't think of anything else to write. 110 days to go, so I better get back to studying.
I'm not attaching my study notes because I'm pretty sure it would be copywrite infringement, or if not that, illegal in some other kind of way. I don't feel like being sued by Stalla, so if you want to see my study notes for a given reading, email me.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
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