I completed the CFA program and earned the Charter in 2014. After almost a year enjoying life without study pressure I start to miss the intellectual challenge, and the satisfaction from learning something really good, I experienced during my studies for the CFA exam. Now I have started considering going deeper in some area like Alternatives (CAIA), Risk Management (FRM) or quantative methods (CQF). Anyone out there who did one of these qualifications after the CFA? Is it worth? Did you learn a lot of new useful things?
As a profession I am a Bond Trader/Market maker (both manual and algorithmic) in a large global bank. My univesity background is Computer Science and Engineering (MSc) and I also did an MBA.
Am in a similar professional position as you so happy to discuss this. IMHO, do FRM if you wanna grasp some quant/risk management bits but that’s it. Nobody really cares about CQF or even CAIA or even FRM for that matter, except that FRM actually teaches you things that you may use iin trading.
You don’t need any more qualifications as far I can foresee. Spend more time with clients, brokers and colleagues - network harder, and get up the ladder. None of the BSD’s in my town are CFAs or MBAs - so you’re already a few steps ahead
^+1. From where you currently are, the cost/benefit aspects of having the FRM be the next one is a no-brainer, if you ask me (if you’re determined that you want to do more).
I’m saying the benefits would outweigh the cost. The cost of the two exams plus materials (assuming you use Schweser) make it one of the most inexpensive credentials around (definitely compared to CQF, which is far more pricey and from a time-management perspective, structured like a college course). Also, while it is recommended to pay the annual membership fee for the extra benefits GARP will give you for doing so, unlike other credentials, GARP does not currently require you to pay it to continue using the FRM marks. If you do decide to pay the membership fee, it’s only around $200/yr as opposed to CAIA’s mandatory $350 and CFA Institute’s combined mandatory fee of $400+.
The FRM curriculum is packed with broad but deep quantitative content (including extensive coverage of credit risk, interest rate risk and topics relevant to securitization and instrument structuring). So it is my opinion that this credential will have the most applicability, given your bond trading and banking background.
Whatever can be achieved thru calculas can also be achieved thru algebra and co ordinate geometry. Given, the circumstances, FRM offers the quant at a deeper level. That said, it is nice to have this around if u r a bond trader or an FI analyst of any sort.
