calculus or cfa .. or both?

[snasir]

I have about tens years experience in IT and now I am thinking about picking up skills that can help me in quant field.

I am planning to take all the required math classes for a masters in computational finance. but i was wondering if CFA is something that can help me as well alongwith math?

I have all CFA level 1 material but not sure if my efforts here are overlapped with what I might be studying in comp. finance a year down the road? should I only focus on math and perhaps getting certified in JAVA. would it be worth it for me to go ahead CFA level? am I trying to achieve too much here? just dont want to paddle in water for nothing. I think I can pull off CFA level 1 this dec.

would someone guide me. thanks

 

[IlyaKEightSix]

Are you nuts? Calculus >>>>>>>>>>>>> CFA.

CFA=talk finance.

Calculus=if you don't have this, you shouldn't talk about numbers. Ever. All of finance is based on probability, which is based on calculus (and more). It's the reason why there are armies of businesspeople and quants are niche.

Calculus is only the beginning, by the way.

 

[snasir]

thanks for response

does that mean i can bypass CFA and just go for maths? what about programming? does certification help?

 

[IlyaKEightSix]

does that mean i can bypass CFA and just go for maths? what about programming? does certification help?

From what I know about the CFA, it's basic finance and economics. So it allows you to "talk" finance. However, if you do get a position as a quant, it means your financial understanding is by far and above that of a CFA's.

Programming is a must, at least as far as I interpret. This quote is from Andy:

The percentage of your time is 50,30,15,5 on programming, finance, maths, and sales pitches respectively. So 50% of your time is C++ programming as far as I understand.

 

[doug reich]

From what I know about the CFA, it's basic finance and economics. So it allows you to "talk" finance. However, if you do get a position as a quant, it means your financial understanding is by far and above that of a CFA's.

Let's not go overboard here: the CFA is a different skill set. The CFA is geared towards fundamental analysts on both buy-side and sell-side. It test skills in stock selection. These are not skills you will use in most quant jobs. (But I am told that there is a premium for someone with both skills.)

 

[Uncle Max]

If you have time and money for CFA it definitely won't hurt. It will be a good thing for you to start switching from IT side to finance.

 

[chrisd]

Learning Calculus/Probability should probably be your # 1 priority, if you want to get onto the quant side of things. While programming on the whole is probably more important on the job, you'll need to have a solid understanding of the the underlying maths before you can even start to read about quantitative finance.

From what I've heard, not much stock is put in programming certifications. I also wouldn't focus on JAVA, C++ is the standard.

 

[Uncle Max]

CFA=talk finance.

Calculus=if you don't have this, you shouldn't talk about numbers. Ever. All of finance is based on...

I agree with Ilya to a large extent; at this point, learning Calculus/Probability should be your # 1 priority...

It would be really nice if people tell us how much experience in Finance and in Financial Engineering particularly they have while giving such strong opinions on this kind of questions.

 

[atreides]

It would be really nice if people tell us how much experience in Finance and in Financial Engineering particularly they have while giving such strong opinions on this kind of questions.

Hi Maxrum, I could not agree more with you more. Most people come to this forum to get more informed about quant stuff. Since this is an open forum there are newbies, experienced folks, enthusiasts, and what have you.

So if you are giving a strong willed opinion about something, it wouldn't hurt to let us know whether your opinion is based on past experiences (work, finance, MFE) or just hearsay

thanks

 

[atreides]

Are you nuts? Calculus >>>>>>>>>>>>> CFA.

Lets keep it civil

 

[chrisd]

It would be really nice if people tell us how much experience in Finance and in Financial Engineering particularly they have while giving such strong opinions on this kind of questions.

I do work at a municipal broker dealer, so I do have some experience with finance, albeit a bit out of the mainstream.

Having read my previous opinion, yes the opinion comes off as a bit "stronger" than i intended: I merely meant to say that every book on quantitative finance I've read (and I've read a few, although probably not as many as a lot of people on this forum) assumes some knowledge of calculus and probability, so it's very much a prerequisite to learning about the subject.

I didn't mean to echo any dismissive sentiments toward the CFA. From what I know of it, the CFA tests you on a large body of (non-trivial) knowledge, although it has fairly minimal overlap with what you'd study for an MFE.

 

[samuel]

Well, computationally, calculus and probability are relatively easy. So, learning these subjects at an elementary level doesn't merit putting off other academic activities. So, do both.

 

[doug reich]

Let's not go overboard here: the CFA is a different skill set. The CFA is geared towards fundamental analysts on both buy-side and sell-side. It test skills in stock selection. These are not skills you will use in most quant jobs. (But I am told that there is a premium for someone with both skills.)

While we're outing ourselves: I just took the CFA I in June, so I have more than passing familiarity with the material. My parenthetical was clearly second hand from a coworker on the fundamental side as well as a PM at his own quant fund; the applicability is to stat arb. However, one can easily see how a good intuition and understanding of the market would help in a trading role beyond strong quantitative skills.

I work as a stat arb on the buy side.