I work as a buyside trader at a big government pension plan. I became a CFA charterholder several years ago. My boss suggested that I take the CMT exams a few years ago. I recently passed the 3rd exam earlier this summer. Has anyone gone through the process of becoming a CMT?
I just got the Level 1 books last week
Just out of curiosity, how would you compare the quality of the CMT’s readings compared to the CFAI curriculum?
I never read the actual texts provided by CFAI. I only studied with Kaplan/Schweser. The CMT/Wiley textbooks are terrible IMO, and the online practice questions are worse.
I was considering doing the CMT program after I got my level lll results, but then decided against it. It will be another set of dues I will have to pay every year, as I doubt my employer would pay for that. Instead, I am focusing on reading more books, newspapers, and advancing my knowledge of programs like Microsoft Excel. I feel like I can get so much more out of that, but that’s my opinion.
The dues are not expensive. but if you start collecting letters after your names , the annual fees do add up fast.
I just sat for the Level 1 test for the CMT. The book was interesting. I am on the retail side, so compared to the 7, 66, and 24 it is a fairly low bar. The text is primarily a conglomeration of other texts, which helped to break up the style of writing. Some of it was new to me, Elliott wave theory, motive, impulse, diagonal, corrective, etc. I thought candlestick patterns were interesting, but they are pretty much just two and three day patterns (I always like to say “doji” when i saw it in the text), “dark cloud cover”, “morning star”, etc. Point and Figure charting is very interesting to learn about as well. There are also some good general investment rules covered from 100 years ago up to now. The general takeaway from the text is that EMH is not proven, and TA is not proven. Go figure. Hence, Adaptive Market Hypothesis.
It is not really practical for my day to day work. About a quarter of the test seemed to overlap the securities test, such as options and ethics, so that made it a bit easier. I would say if it can help with your learning then do it, but I don’t think it would help significantly to get a job or to get promoted (unless your boss says it will). I personally like that only 2400 people have the designation, even though that means most people have not been familiarized.
All that said, i would never try to have a conversation with a client about Elliott wave theory, or point and figure charting.