Do u think cfa teach too little Math?

bleach wrote:
Will make a $100 bet right now that the OP and two other nerds (Alladin and Eddiechen) are all virgins.
By Alladin and Eddiechen’s username it is also clear that they are both Asians…surprise surprise, two asian dorks trying to ruin life for everyone else.
Listen you math hungry virgins, go somewhere else and study something else. Leave us average folk to worry about the 38% pass rate.
And for the record, doing more math does NOT make you smarter. Complicated and stupid math models helped mask the real credit/subprime risks pre 2008.
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wow…douche of the year nominee
 
I think bleach was pretty accurate. More Asians suffering from physics envy.
It would be nice to learn more about the math stuff mentioned, but testing this is not necessary, especially when so much of it is proprietary and subject to becoming outdated. You should really be learning this fancy math stuff at the high paying job, which you already have landed, the same job that is supplementing your education by paying for you to be in the CFA program. Wait , you mean to tell me that you don’t have that job? You work in ITin Bangalore? you’re hoping that the CFA program will help you make that switch? Face palm.
The cfa material, as it is, is fairly timeless. It’s like a liberal arts degree in finance for better or worse. It’s not a bachelor of science in making money, which is what you guys (quant heads/Asians) seem to be after.
 
“The cfa material, as it is, is fairly timeless. It’s like a liberal arts degree in finance for better or worse. It’s not a bachelor of science in making money, which is what you guys (quant heads/Asians) seem to be after.”
This is BS and I don’t mean Bachelor of Science.
(Insert 7 blind men and the elephant analogy here but) the CFA charter is a professional qualification, more akin to applied science than liberal arts.
They do go out of their way to avoid any mention of calculus, esp in economics or behavioral finance, for example, when explaining diminishing marginal utility or marginal cost = marginal benefit, etc. A simple “d^2u/dw^2 < 0” or “dc/dq = db/dq” would make things clearer.
 
bleach wrote:
And for the record, doing more math does NOT make you smarter. Complicated and stupid math models helped mask the real credit/subprime risks pre 2008.
Click to expand...
The rally cry of the innumerate.
 
1recho wrote:
bleach wrote:
And for the record, doing more math does NOT make you smarter. Complicated and stupid math models helped mask the real credit/subprime risks pre 2008.
Click to expand...
The rally cry of the innumerate.
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How so? The models were faulty to begin with. They used 20 years of housing data to predict an upward trend that would never end. Models are useful for forecasting, but rarely are they ever spot on. Give me a break.
 
maisatomai wrote:
I finish the whole program without knowing what calculus is and how to do matrix algebra. I always thought that portfolio manager and analyst need a lot of math in their work?
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if you’re looking for math and finance — you probably should check out financial engineering
http://www.ieor.columbia.edu/pages/graduate/ms_financial_eng/index.html
“Financial Engineering is a multidisciplinary field involving financial theory, the methods of engineering, the tools of mathematics and the practice of programming. The Financial Engineering Program at Columbia University provides a one-year full-time training in the application of engineering methodologies and quantitative methods to finance. It is designed for students who wish to obtain positions in the securities, banking, and financial management and consulting industries, or as quantitative analysts in corporate treasury and finance departments of general manufacturing and service firms.”
 
Mathematics. An elegant wepon… for a more, civilized, age.
Now the good modelers are all but extinct; seduced they were by the dark side of equations.
 
bpdulog wrote:
1recho wrote:
bleach wrote:
And for the record, doing more math does NOT make you smarter. Complicated and stupid math models helped mask the real credit/subprime risks pre 2008.
Click to expand...
The rally cry of the innumerate.
Click to expand...
How so? The models were faulty to begin with. They used 20 years of housing data to predict an upward trend that would never end. Models are useful for forecasting, but rarely are they ever spot on. Give me a break.
Click to expand...
Right, but extending that to say “doing more math does NOT make you smarter” is how innumerate people can feel good about themselves. It would be like citing sport injury stats to justify being a couch potato.
 
What I found more useful than matrix algebra and calculus was compound interest math. It seemed to be quite pervasive in the CFA exam syllabus, e.g. equity valuation models, futures pricing, fixed income (naturally).
 
Any one here looking into the CQF (Certificate in Financial Engineering)?
 
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