wilmott.com

Can you please tell me your views about CFA? If someone has an MSc in Finance does he really need the CFA? Which are the benefits of the CFA?Thank you

CFA is somehow like an MBA in Finance with a focus on Portfolio Managementit's useful if you want to do portfolio-management or security-analysis ...I liked it personally but it is a lot of material to learn and memorize ...others?

I look at it the other way around. If you have an MSc in Finance, you should not find the CFA difficult. You need a decent memory and some study discipline, but it's not a major investment.Whether you need it or not depends on your resume and what you want to do. It is most valuable for people without educational credentials in finance, which is not your situation. However, it also shows a commitment to the practice of finance. If you have good practical work experience, you don't need it for that reason, but if you don't, it can make the difference. Finally, it is useful for establishing yourself to people outside of finance. This is important if you want to sell your services directly, say by starting a hedge fund. By extension, it's valuable to employers who sell directly; a hedge fund likes to have plenty of degrees and designations in the staff bios.The CFA is most appropriate for conventional money management. However many of the people you hope to impress with it won't know that.

A CFA is most valuable for fund manager and senior analyst positions. It is complementary to a MS Finance or MBA and is most advantageous for younger candidates with less actual work experience. It is a big committment in terms of additional work - regardless of whether you have previously earned an advance degree. I earned my CFA in my 3rd year on Wall Street and it turned out to be a key factor in moving up from a junior level position ot a senior position with decision-making / P&L responsibility.

Attached is CFA Candidate Self-Assessment Test (with answer) you can use to test yourself.