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About FRM?

Yani Boshev

Joined
12/5/11
Messages
6
Points
11
Hi,
First of all I want to congratulate you on the wonderful forum. It's very useful indeed.

At the moment I am studying MSc "Investment management" Part-time in a not very widely recognized university in Eastern Europe. I have topics in Risk management and Derivatives and expect GPA over 3.7 (out of 4). My undergrad. is "Finance" with only two semesters teaching math and one - statistics. Definitely I don't have sufficient math and programming background. I have enrolled in CFA Program and I was wondering if earning the FRM designation would enhance my profile for enrolling in MSc in Financial mathematics or related afterwards. My plan is to finish with my present MSc at the end of the year. Then to enroll in FRM Program and in the middle of 2014 to obtain CFA and FRM (I think I will pass all exams from the first time). I suppose I will have some working background in financial industry (may be not in a quant role) in that point of time. Additionally I will have enough time to cover the topics in mathematics, computing, statistics and econometrics and to be ready for the admission.
So do you think that FRM would help me? My assumption is that it is more quant oriented than CFA and additionally I am highly interested in the field of Risk Management. Any profile enhancing alternatives? All advices will be highly appreciated.
 
Yani Boshev said:
Definitely I don't have sufficient math and programming background. I have enrolled in CFA Program and I was wondering if earning the FRM designation would enhance my profile for enrolling in MSc in Financial mathematics or related afterwards.
Click to expand...
That's the issues right there. CFA/FRM/etc is not going to help.
Take more math courses and beef up your programming skills.
 
Thank you very much for the fast answer!
I have already started my math preparation a few months ago. I have just looked at Baruch's online certification program in C++. Is this the most appropriate course for programming? Shall I need courses in math "because of the certificate"? I mean I am really passionate in maths and prefer self-studying. If I would need certificates in math for the admissions committees, could you suggest me an online course?
 
Look at the titles:
CFA = Chartered Financial Analyst, FRM = Financial Risk Manager.
No math is included.
They can help on the finance background. But in no way can they enhance the math proficiency. Usually these qualifications will be a plus for the engineering students.
 
There definitely IS math in the FRM curriculum. Of course it is not fancy stochastic processes and PDEs, but it gives you a good overview of mathematical subjects & tools that are used in practice. Statistical knowlegde (Hypothesis testing, var. distributions), pricing models (e.g. B.S.), and quantitative risk models (VaR, ES, etc.) is part of the FRM curriculum. FRM is definitely more quantitative than CFA, but then those two programs have different scopes anyway.
 
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