The Level 3 material is well thought through.
The perspective of the CFA level 3 candidate is not, as it is often said, that of a portfolio manager but rather of a Financial Advisor who sits in his office waiting for his first client.
Knock, knock…
Nice to meet you. What are your biases, your objective and constraints? want 4% p.a. plus inflation? Mmmh, what asset allocation can we set-up to achieve this? What is the opportunity set: currencies, fixed income, equity, alternative investments. Managing the risk in the portfolio? We should think about that too, even if everything will turn out just fine. Finally let’s build the portfolio in accordance with the SAA, monitor the positions and rebalance as necessary.
This is the sequence of the books and going with the flow makes a lot of sense.