Financial modelling

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Do you guys know of a reputed financial modelling course or certification exam ?
I am a CFA level 2 candidate , who wants to end up in a top 10 school for business , so i can eventually end up working in private equity.
 
I used WSP, it should give you a good overview of the mechanics of financial modeling.
 
Do you put WSP on your cv? I guess it sets a benchmark as opposed to saying you are just a mean Excel mofo who can model sh.t.
 
Learn that it can be spelt / spelled different ways before posting and making a fool of yourself?
 
Ok, who cares what the spelling is?. Anyway, re: Wall Street Prep. It probably helps a bit if you are entry level. The IB dudes I did interviews with seemed to have a favorable impression of the program. However, it probably doesn’t matter after you have a few years of experience.
 
The effect of WSP is more about making you feel more comfortable that you know the very basics of how to do these models. If you have 0 experience, it might help on a resume, but mostly the effects of announcing that you’ve done this are probably pretty minimal.
 
^ Agreed.
If you want to learn on your own, pick up the book Financial Modeling by Simon Benninga.
 
I have the Benninga book and have been through it a couple of times. It has less on building ER/IB financial models than you would think. Lots on CFA topics though like IRR/NPV/TVM/Basic Portfolio Management stuff (not Black Litterman iterations or Efficient Frontiers - neither have this probably). So this is where it would add value to the Benninga book - ER/IB models and the conventions that are followed.
I also saw on the WSP website that you can get 35 hrs CE credit for CFA by taking their course. You need 20 credits a year to renew your charter nowadays. So WSP looks like a practical refresher and scores some CE points at the same time. Win win. Especially if you can convince your employer to foot the bill. I’m just thinking how to phrase this to my boss right now…
 
Muddahudda Wrote:
——————————————————-
>
You
> need 20 credits a year to renew your charter
> nowadays.
Did I not get the memo?
 
I’m not sure you *need* it, but they do *encourage* it. Every year when you sign up to pay your dues, they ask you if you’ve done a certain amount work. Reading articles in FAJ counts, teaching counts, conferences count. Some number is supposed to be related to ethics.
 
So, if you don’t have any credits, do they do anything?
 
I’m working through the Benninga book as well. It’s a nice mechanics course, but am a little disappointed that it doesn’t provide more practical (detailed) instruction. The chapter on banking is nice as well, but is also very basic.
Downloaded the Sengupta Excel Financial Modelling book from the Finance 3.0 website (free). It is a nice add-on to Benninga’s book but also very basic.
Anyone have any ideas on how to refine the modeling learned in these books to a practical model that can be used for interviews? (i.e. have added the CFA Lvl II FSA subjects, but the models still lack those industry specific components that would make them usable) Thanks.
 
Signed up for WSP. Um, thanks boss in advance… will bill you later.
I’ll let y’all know my feedback on how it differs from Benninga pros / cons and so on.
 
I’ve read Financial Modeling by Benninga and also have Wall Street Training’s self study course. Financial Modeling by Benninga is a good introduction to VBA and some of the typical corporate finance topics like Derivatives, Bonds, DCF Modeling, Portfolio Theory, etc. Wall Street Training is more for I-Banking as it covers Financial Statement Analysis, Valuation, and M&A LBO Modeling.
 
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