CFA Study Guide

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Here I will gather links in helping a candidate gather information, prepare, and study for the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

CFA Information:

The best place to start is within the CFA Institute website. Here you'll find all the practical information on taking the steps toward getting your designation. This is where you'll sign up for either the June or December test at which time you'll be sent the CFAI curriculum. With your registration you will also be allowed acces to one Sample and one Mock exam, for free with an option to purchase more. You can also find helpful information like:

• Exam topic area weights
• A handful of sample questions
• Guide for finding paid Exam Prep Providers
• Learning Outcome Statements for each section

Blog Roll:

There are a handful of fellow bloggers who share their study paths, sucesses and nightmares if you'd like to get more information on the process as a whole:

My CFA Adventure
Passing the CFA exams
5M10Y
CFA Thoughts

There are two major players in the test prep game, Schweser(Kaplan), and Stalla, along with a handful of smaller offerings.

There is an on-line forum, called AnalystForum, which you can easily browse and read, but I have found that for many people getting registered to be able to post is a bit harder. You must use a company, or other proprietary email server address in your registration information, no free accounts like hotmail or gmail. I might also suggest seeking out other candidates in your area using social networking tools like Facebook or LinkedIn. There are groups which you can join and post topics and discussions to, but often times these are simply areas where people are seeking free study materials or spamming the discussions with posts to websites or what seem to be job openings. I've tried asking relevnat questions to these discussion groups before with little to no luck for a quality response, but have been able to find other candidates in my area that were looking for study partners. You can also try the forums at Analyst Notes, where you can also find a practice tests, and notes for much cheaper then the big test prep guys, but you do loose some quality in my opinion.

Level 1 CFA Overview
Chapter 1: Ethics & Standards
Chapter 2: Quantitative Methods
Chapter 3: Introduction to Microeconomics
Chapter 4: Introduction to Macroeconomics
Chapter 5: Global Economic Analysis
Chapter 6: Financial Statements
Chapter 7: Financial Ratios
Chapter 8: Assets
Chapter 9: Liabilities
Chapter 10: Red Flags
Chapter 11: Corporate Finance
Chapter 12: Securities Markets
Chapter 13: Equity Investments
Chapter 14: Fixed Income
Chapter 15: Derivatives
Chapter:16: Alternative Investments
Chapter 17: Portfolio Management

Calculators:

There are only two calculators allowed into the testing facility; HP12C and the TI BA2 (or Plus version). These can be bought at most online electronics retailers, some college book stores, etc. The key point here is to note that the HP uses reverse notation to enter numbers and equations. Most serious financial professionals I have seen use the HP on a regular basis. They are about the right size for a suit pocket and I've seen plenty an HP get pulled out in deal meetings to do quick calculations on payments and dilutions when discussing deal structures and covenants. Although the TI's input is much more like a regular calculator and therefore more familiar to most people.

As far as the study materials go, Schweser recommends the TI and only details the input processes for this calculator. If you are using Schweser and an HP, you'll need to already be familiar with the input methods. If you'd like to try the HP and are unfamiliar, I'd suggest the Stalla course material which shows the keystrokes needed for both calculators.