Level1materials - Google Drive - PFA my study planner. In the Excel, the bullets on column C indicate the complexity. The next column is the predictable questions on the exam from that particular chapter. Coincidently, for every specific reading, the hours I allotted matched the figure of problems that were expected. Two forty MCQ's and roughly two forty hours of study time. Don't thank me, all of it is from the AnalystConnections Mentor Me Motivate Me calls that I booked. Throughout their follow up calls, we mutually decided on a target, and I question them on the content in that particular reading. Such subtopic notes I make in the column F.Here in my response, I donu2019t intend to be a u2018topic indexu2024 where I merely list down the chapter names. Iu2019m glad that you landed here, to read my u2018experienceu2024 with the syllabus. Read along; youu2019ll find some helpful docs attached, that made me pass my exams.-Equity (11% 25 hours): I love valuation models. LOVE. Valuation is intriguing; regrettably, CFA level 1 equity isn't appealing. The bulk of it is financial literacy; description of basic terminologies like the IPO, brokers, dealers, indices, exchanges, short sales, market structure, and so on.The dividend discount valuation is barely one of the six readings, and the rest has an academic theoretical bend. In my opinion, the lack of practical cases consequences to the insignificance of the level one, in the industry. You want to break the ice or need a launchpad for your career, take some voluntary research internship. Our Fintech prof refers us to Life-School research assignments. Apart from incredible motivation by the success stories, researching the trending tech companies, their blunders, the SWOT Porters, all of the analysis will stay in the back of our mind helping us make informed decisions for clients, maybe ten years down the line. Think ahead but start now, alongside your level one.Ethics (15%, 35 hours): Easy while studying, tricky while answering. Master these two tips. One is to think rationally (e.g. you've received 50k shares, and are to be distributed among three, it can be done as 17k, 17k, and 16k. It is rational & not considered partial.) The second tip is to check the intention (e.g. a printing mistake by a person bearing no malice doesn't amount to a violation, unless not editing even after noticing.)The original curriculum is the ideal study material especially for this subject, and I must also confess that the second reading will get dull, ethics is uninteresting anyways. In fact, the ethics syllabus and examples are ditto same for three levels. You can't afford to get bored of ethics, here's why-?This ad on the left 3 The cartoonist prepares these witty ethics meme, to spice up your learning. This exposes the Ethics standard on Loyalty. There are hundreds like these, covering examples end to end. An image is worth a thousand words! She claims to hit the subconscious mind with the photo memory so that you remember the judgements for three rebirths, let alone three levels. Iu2019ll pass on these.-Corporate Finance (10% 20 hours): Some juicy number crunching here. Okay, so you could look at CF as a memorisation based material, or you could break down all the formulas and understand every little ingredient. Right from the reinvestment assumptions concerning NPV IRR, the tax deductibility in WACC, the country risk of CAPM, or be it operating financial leverage or turnover ratios from working capital.CF isn't merely academics; it's moreover the judgments you need to run a corporation. Though it does require a rooted understanding of fundamental arithmetic like percentages fractions; just like most of the CFA topics. You've got to be a number person if you dream finance, accept the fact.-FRA (15% 40 hours): Financial Reporting & Analysis is the full name or loosely accounts as they call it. Unlike you'd expect, this topic doesn't need even passing journal entries. It's accounts that an analyst requires, that's it.FRA starts with the introduction of the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flows. Then the topic moves ahead with inventory, taxes, leases, bond accounting.We've got two accounting systems- IFRS (Europe) & US GAAP (USA). Even though the regulators are converging to IFRS, for the exams, you've to remember those differences!-Fixed Income Securities (11% 35 hours): Not that easy. Fix Income? Bonds are securities that yield a fixed income stream. Bond valuation involves discounting the coupons to present. No wonders, it demands the most robust foundation of the time value of money concepts (tvm), discounted cash flow concept (dcf) from QM and NPV IRR concept from CF. Almost all valuations from equity to derivatives are reliant on these three topics, so you got to do the former the before the later valuations. It's recommended to read in the order that institute advocates, the sequence of their volumes; starting with the book one. Getting back to Fixed Income, after youu2019ve concluded the synopsis - attempt elucidating this conundrum. Why does a bondu2019s price rise more than it falls? If you could simplify the convexity mystery, Prof Campbell drafts you the LOR.-Quant (Statistics 10% 35 hours): Now this is something we don't come across in our general study or usual work; so equip yourself with those short-cuts. Just like Ethics, no one would want Quant a reason for retaking the level one. The bell curves, Greek letters are anyways scary; donu2019t risk of skipping Hypothesis. At the minimum, do the three complement cards, just three essential cards for the sake of your exam, nothing lesser than that! Iu2019ll bundle those on the drive, along with Ethics Meme. Also, don't overspend time on small aspects of probability distribution and hypothesis.-Economics (10% 30 hours): A lot of pupils in 2024 lamented the length of Economics. I've heard that there were 500+ pages for a scant 10%, so the institute obliges, by doing two beginning chapters of micro eco as non-testable, but a prerequisite. The prerequisite is as massive as the new syllabus, but don't worry, most of the questions on the paper could be from Macro and Global Economics, barely from Micro. That's my judgment; the institute does not release previous exam papers, nor is it permitted to discuss exam questions. Furthermore, if you transfer the exam fee to the institute via the wire-transfer payment mode (the cheapest one letting you pay a month later), you automatically begin tracking the FOREX to hit on a favourable rate. The currency chapter in Eco is half done, by all practicality.-LWS indicates a Low weighted subject. These are AI, PM, Der. Don't neglect an LWS. Look at the effort-reward ratio.-Derivatives (LWS) (6% 15 hours): Weapons of mass destruction, huh? Just joking, they are neither those nor is the derivatives market a gambling den. The valuation process is logical which again presumes the knowledge of TVM DFC NPV. The first chapter introduces forwards futures options swaps, and the valuation section dives into the computations of forward pricing, FRA-int rate swaps, put-call parity and closes by a surface problem on the binomial option pricing model, which is exercised ahead in the level two.-Portfolio Management (LWS) (6% 15 hours): Break this down into two segments. One bit is the readings other than risk-return statistics. These small chapters are to do with identifying the risk-taking capability & willingness of the client in question; which is judged on parameters like age, health, dependents and different common sense factors. It also includes some newly introduced readings on FinTech and Risk Management, forming the dry technical theory.The second, risk-return section is most important for the exam. It's all about formulas of variance, standard deviation, correlation and beta calculations, graphs like CAL, indifference curves and some more technical part. The pre-level-one program will be at your rescue if youu2019re seeing these names for the first time. The current modern portfolio theory is too much reliant on Quant and is void of common sense; this is what the prominent personalities like WB have to say.-Alternative Investments (LWS) (6% 10 hours): Short and sweet. Hedge funds Private Equity Venture capital commodities Real estate. More of stories, less of numbers. That was the last topic from the list. I always had an objective to apply what I learn. I took up the 'Applied Financial Analysis, a virtual simulated program by LifeSchool UK. Alongside the level one, I worked on projects to implement the knowledge imparted through these books. Worthwhile experience :)For the reading sequence, the order of the books set forth by the institute is excellent, irrespective of what materials you're referring. Candidates who are having a commerce background are more comfortable with Equity Alt CF FRA. Apart from ethics where everyone faces a perplexity, commerce undergrads fumble with Quant Fix Inc PM Derivatives. The engineers have their tough times when they are comprehending FRA Eco. So that now you know, you'll figure out the stuff to keep for later.You might use the study materials that I did, but for a flow, read in the order of Institute ebooks. Volume one has Ethics. Start with Ethics - most important topic! Youu2019ve full EthicsMeme on this drive - Level1materials - Google Drive
