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Vault Message Board: Investment Management

Topic Name: Investment Management
Message Name: Relax
Date Posted: 03/22/2002
In Reply To: You seem to make a lot of assumptions based on opinion, not fact. This is not a great characteristic for somebody looking into a career in IM. Have you ever taken any of the CFA exams, or are you just playing resident expert reading off of the AIMR web site? Judging from your posts, I'd suspect the latter. There is very little overlap between the CFP and the CFA curriculum. The CFA doesn't even attempt to address insurance, tax planning, estates and trusts, nor does the CFP touch upon the intricacies of accounting, economics, or corporate finance (to name just a few areas). Taking the CFP won't do much to prepare you for the CFA, but the accompanying work experience may be helpful depending on which areas of financial planning you focus on. For example, I know a few CFPs who focus on FI investments and could likely apply this knowledge to parts of the CFA curriculum. Also, while your assertion that "Finance is not difficult" is subject to debate, most of what the CFA curriculum covers FAR more than the CAPM and Dividend Growth Models you think you've mastered as an undergrad. Can you explain the correlation in the multivariate normal distribution? How comfortable are you calculating FX rates with two spot or forward FX quotations involving three currencies? By the way, this is from my old level one material, and you'll only have 90 seconds to answer each question. To the original poster - you seem to have a well thought out plan. It would be good to start the CFA process as soon as possible, but be sure not to overextend yourself. Studying for the CFA is a major time commitment. The CFP isn't a piece of cake either. Best of luck!
Message: Copley, I'm studying for CFA Level I now. It is a time commitment but it's not the MCATs and having taken some undergraduate classes or being involved in this from experience does provide a good learning framework. I was trying to help the original poster with some encouragement based upon my own impressions of both tests, having made clear earlier and never implied that I knew anything about the specifics of the CFP. I'm sorry if my comments about finance offended you, I meant no harm. But I don't see why you had to get an attitude about it.

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