Tuesday, October 8, 2019

CFA Investment Foundations Program

I recently completed the Investment Foundations Program developed by CFAI. This involved:

  • Completing approximately 1,400 practice questions
  • Passing 100-question exam
Topics covered by the program include:
  • Ethics and Investment Professionalism
  • Regulation
  • Microeconomics
  • Macroeconomics
  • Economics of International Trade
  • Financial Statements
  • Quantitative Concepts
  • Debt Securities
  • Equity Securities
  • Derivatives
  • Alternative Investments
  • Structure of Investment Industry
  • Investment Vehicles
  • Functioning of Financial Markets
  • Investors and Their Needs
  • Investment Management
  • Risk Management
  • Performance Evaluation
  • Investment Industry Documentation
The program is free and available on the CFA website and probably takes 40-80 hours to complete depending on the student's prior exposure to the material or lack thereof.

Truth be told, the program is not level appropriate for a 9th year corporate attorney with an MBA, but I completed it in order to cooperate with my employer, who will support my effort to pass the CFA Level I exam next year.

I'm under the impression that this program was created for back office financial services staff, but think it would be equally useful (and I would recommend it) for a law student headed into an investment management or fund formation practice without prior industry experience.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I completed the CFA about 15 years ago (how did I get so old?!) when I was working in finance before going to law school. I can say without a doubt that the three CFA exams are the most difficult I have ever taken (including both bar exams I sat for), but it was also an incredibly rewarding process. I found it to be somewhat similar to the bar exam in the sense that, generally speaking, if you put in the required study time, your odds of achieving the desired outcome are pretty good. That being said, what made the CFA exams so difficult compared to the bar exam, in my opinion, was that they required assimilation of the information you'd learned instead of simply regurgitation. Best of luck as you move forward!

Side note: I believe we overlapped for at least a few years at our undergraduate institution. Small world!