Change of Plan

Audacious

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The CFA questions are fair game. Whether easy or difficult, you can go back to the text or external sources to check on the right answer and know your mistakes; EXCEPT with Ethics. Doesn’t matter if you have your books open, your smart phone on, or you can answer in a group’s discussion; Ethics can always be misleading. In the exam, there is that wrong answer that you can eliminate, and those 2 probable correct answers. Which answer to choose depends on which assumption to take. Do you assume the exclusion of this; or the inclusion of that? Do you assume all measures are considered, or some measures were neglected?
You can know Ethics material inside out. You can know the right answer depending on what scenario the writer is considering. But what’s missing, is reading the writer’s mind. The answer can be a straightforward without overthinking the case, or it might need more elaboration. You will know only after the answer is revealed. It can go both ways, it all depends on how the writer of the question wants it.
In real life, there is no need for assumptions. Ethics either applies to you or to your subordinates. If it applies to you, then you know the whole situation and you know the rules. If it applies to your subordinates and you don’t have all the information, just pick up the iFFing phone and call somebody, ask for relevant documents, check, verify. The practice of assuming things is detrimental to all what’s right; to diligence, prudent, care, and the integrity of the market. You shouldn’t assume things, you should verify. So stop getting us those obscure questions that add nothing. CFA Ethics are very commendable. Ethics questions are not, they’re a guessing game.
Ethics was a style of life to me. I valued ethics highly in all manners of life. The only unethical act I commit is that finding French to be good people and having many of them as my friends. But after diving into CFA’s world of Ethics’ questions with all of their dark corners, I feel my personality is changing. Am turning into the dark side.
Now I have a new plan, I’m calling it The Plan.
The Plan is to spend a full day in the main toilet of a company. Everyday a different company. I’ll listen to the conversations and take trade actions according to the information am gathering. I’m calling this the Tiles Theory (bigger in size than Mosaic). In a year I’ll become multi billionaire. I’ll fund the establishment of a new Financial Charter and I’ll be the first to get this Charter. I’ll sell my equity holdings and use half of the money to buy a toilet paper factory. The other half I’ll donate to a charity that installs portable toilets in poor areas.
And this is ETHICAL ADJUSTMENT
If I fail Band 10 while in Ethics I get <50 ; I’ll quit the whole program.
 
” The only unethical act I commit is that finding French to be good people and having many of them as my friends.” - you owe me a glass of blanton’s since I spit most of mine out laughing at this comment.
 
Ethics shouldnt be tested in L3 we already did it twice.
If CFAI wants us to be ethical, theres no guarantee of making students ethical by using trick questions on the exam.
 
“The Plan is to spend a full day in the main toilet of a company. Everyday a different company. I’ll listen to the conversations and take trade actions according to the information am gathering. I’m calling this the Tiles Theory (bigger in size than Mosaic). In a year I’ll become multi billionaire. I’ll fund the establishment of a new Financial Charter and I’ll be the first to get this Charter. I’ll sell my equity holdings and use half of the money to buy a toilet paper factory. The other half I’ll donate to a charity that installs portable toilets in poor areas.”
This is the best thing I’ve read in a long time!
 
thespacebar wrote:
Ethics shouldnt be tested in L3 we already did it twice.
If CFAI wants us to be ethical, theres no guarantee of making students ethical by using trick questions on the exam.
You speak the truth! We all know what Ethics is by now! By trying to trick us on the exam add ZERO value to the charter IMO.
 
Ethics is there to decrease the probability of having a high score in the PM session
 
Audacious wrote:
The only unethical act I commit is that finding French to be good people and having many of them as my friends.
How dare you! Only Europeans are allowed to make fun of their neighboring nations. It is just like having a mentally handicapped brother. It is OK if you take away his pills, but if someone else calls him a “retard” it will make you upset.
just kidding ;)
I agree with you on ethics being a little bit wonky. Take behavioral finance, for example. If you have a wealthy investor that trades excessively against his best interest, CFAI says it is best to “accommodate” this bias. So it is fair practice to lure wealthy investors into excessive trading and profit from commissions, because you can always say “I tried, but he wouldn’t listen”.
 
I_am_the_Highway]</p> <p>
Audacious[/I said:
wrote:
I agree with you on ethics being a little bit wonky. Take behavioral finance, for example. If you have a wealthy investor that trades excessively against his best interest, CFAI says it is best to “accommodate” this bias. So it is fair practice to lure wealthy investors into excessive trading and profit from commissions, because you can always say “I tried, but he wouldn’t listen”.
brilliant! many private banks live by this.
 
I_am_the_Highway wrote:
Only Europeans are allowed to make fun of their neighboring nations.
Don’t underestimate them. You’ll need some help

On Ethics, all they’ve proven is that studying Ethics is a total waste of time.
What was learnt in L1 and L2 is enough. Skim L3 for an hour or less. Voila, you are as prepared as who spent 20 hours studying this waste of valuable English letters . Unfortunately, I’m one of those 20 hour-ers
At the end you’ll know 4 questions, you’ll guess 8. Those are your Twelve Monkeys.
Ethics questions are nothing more than n’importe quoi.
Vive La France; Allez les Bleus
 
Audacious - while i’ve cracked up at half of your posts and utterly confused at the other half the last 6 months, i couldn’t agree more with your words here.
There is no doubt in my mind that i scored better than 90% of the ppl in my L3 testing center in the PM, save for Ethics. As a retaker (band 9 last yr) who knows this info WAY better than i did last yr, if I failed due to a poor score in Ethics, my disappointment and sadness will be more distaste and resentment.
to all who prepared well, get some much needed R&R until early august comes
 
I would laugh hard if this guy in my exam hall fails [evil, I know!]. He spared 10 mins for AM and left like 90-120 mins before the end. But how will I know? I could only know that I might need whatever paper to wipe my tears this August. Maybe, I should put a 2 month call on paper companies.
this will be an ethics case next year: you (not me, not you) get out of the exam room. exhausted. A silly or two questions kept haunting your sleep. You came to AFF and found a post years ago discussing the concepts that you were having trouble with. You posted a question with the intention to clear your mind about this bogging question (and maybe to prepare for next year exam). A guy pointed out that you signed the pledge. You deleted what you posted. But hey, what you wrote was quoted in that guy’s comment, and it’s still visible.
So, as we speak about ETHICS, who was not compliant with the Standards?
* You
* the guy
* AFF that allows such technical mishap (unerased comment in another quote)
Note: AFF’s owner and admin are CFA Charterholders.
 
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