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What is a better way to pass the CFA exam - the official materials that you get shipped when you apply, and pay for even if don't want to, or the shorter unofficial materials such as (among others) Schweser Notes? CFA Institute recommends the minimum of 250 hours to prepare for the Level 1 exam. In my practice, this number can go way up, depending on your background and the availability of time. It is good if one majored in quantitative methods and already has a CPA, then CFA should be less of a challenge, but for the vast majority of candidates, it tends to be the first encounter with at least one of the topics on the broad CFA curriculum. So, it is safe to add up 30-50 hours for each area you are completely unfamiliar with. Plus, CFA exam-takers are usually employed, so they have to spread the study over their weekends and nights, and the total length of the preparation period is very long. Unsurprisingly, many people forget what they studied in the beginning by the time they get...

Forget about sophisticated financial products. Forget about CDOs, especially if they include (God forbid!) MBS. Investors are going back to basics. In the time when the allegedly absolute-returns Hedge Funds are making headlines with big drawdowns, and the Private Equity firms cannot figure out how to make a buyout with no credit lines available in the banks they had been dealing with for decades, what does it leave a sophisticated investor with to invest into? It comes down to the Real Assets. One of the most popular (at least as a topic of conversation) investments of this sort is Timberland Investment. The beauty of it is that once the tree is planted, it grows without any other cash expenses. All that investor has to do is to make a decision on when and how much of the forest should be cut to sell the timberland and get returns. Timberland investments a long-term, typically over 10 years, and thus fairly illiquid, and compared to Private Equity, for instance, they generate lower re...

Saw this pic in a presenation material and couldn't help googling it. Very persuasive! Found via Google Image search

Today's market opened with a surge, closely resembling the inverted version of the chart in my previous post. Source: http://markets.nikkei.co.jp/kokunai/ I find it hard to believe this is a sustainable gain, and my guess is Nikkei 225 will drop back below 9,000.

We all know that times are tough and bound to get even tougher. But when I was watching the Nikkei 225 plunging down 10% during the first hour of trading, it came to a point where I was seriously considering what I would do if the financial industry collapses altogether, and I will be facing the unpleasant task of finding a way to earn my living amid the World Great Depression II. Nikkei 225 Index first hour of trading Oct 10, 2008 Source: http://markets.nikkei.co.jp/kokunai/ Luckily, the stock market recovered just a little after that, suggesting the worst was over. Or maybe still to come.

To the Fed and the ECB: Congratulations, gentlemen! You have miserably failed. This is bad for you and for the world economy. Chart: First hours of trading in NY Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500, % change d-o-d Source: Google Finance The markets reacted to the joint actio n by Fed, ECB and several European central banks with a moment of optimism, and then continued their way downwards. For the invest ors it was too late too little once again. Now it is really hard to tell when the bottom will be reached. Or if.

I read this story a year or so ago, and recently just stumbled over it on the Internet. Looking back at what happened over this year, the ibanker clearly had a lot to learn from the humble fisherman. The American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The fisherman replied, only a little while. The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. The American then asked, "but what do you do with the rest of your time?" The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full a...