Anyone find Derivatives hard?

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jeff_parks5hot

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I’ve gone through all the material twice and I still can;t seem to pick up the concepts in derivatives… the section is a beast and I do horrible on the practice exams on the derivatives section.
I’m thinking about buying a video on derivatives from Schweser, anyone know if their videos are good? is there another tactic to use to learn derivatives?
 
Also do all the examples in CFA texts. They really nailed the concepts for me. Takes couple of hours tops.
 
For me PM is by far the hardest subject! straight maths and formulas I F***** hate it
 
I didn’t find derivatives to be difficult, although the Schweser lecturer said that most candidates find it difficult. I tend to be a very intuitive thinker, so math oriented subjects are easier for me. FRA is the most difficult I would say. A lot of memory is involved in FRA.
 
converts wrote:
For swaps you definitely need to check out this, 2 short posts and this guy has you covered for ir swaps and ccy swaps.
http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-level-ii-forum/9749056
Click to expand...

I can’t thank you enough for this. The explanation is just so concise. I was bombing EVERY swap question, except for the simplest equity swap questions. Just 8 hours ago, I knew still that I was horrible at swaps, and that I needed to revisit the entire section. With the explanations from the linked thread, I’ve now worked through numerous practice questions without fail! Depending on the amount of given info, the calculations sure can be time consuming, but I’m knocking them out no problem! It doesn’t matter what kind. Plain vanilla. FX. Equities. Any combination thereof. Bing Bang Blaow! We can do it!

Next up: PBOs…
 
Derivatives is one of those you know it or not areas, there’s no grey area or it sounds like this answer or that answer. So once you got it, it is solid points for you
 
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