CFA trends in 2013 in London

There has been a clear upward trend in employing CFAs  in London after the lull caused by the recession years. Hiring has been on an upward trajectory as can been seen by the numbers below.

Job demand for CFAs have been steadily rising over the years and efinancial careers site is a good proof
of this.








As they say, bigger the risk, bigger and sweeter the reward. The salary of CFAs have been on rise over the years and which is also quite more than the median salary for other professions.

You can see CFA Salaries for US , CFA salaries in Indian market and Key CFA employers in India

Data courtesy: http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk, if you need any more information please visit http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk or message me for more details/questions.

Key CFA employers and salary structures in India

Here are the employers and the median salary range they pay to CFA charterholders, i think this can be a good starting point in your search of employers who value and appreciate the CFA designation.

Median Salary by Employer Name - Certification: Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) (India)

CAREER TOOLS: Salary Calculator, Career Path Tool, Cost of Living Calculator, Meeting Miser

See what average salary companies in US pay to CFA charterholders

See what is the average salary of CFA Charterholders in India

Average CFA salary structure in India

A recent survey on CFA salary structure in India revealed the data below. This is latest data and there were more than 800 respondents which lends it some credibility.

Median Salary by Job - Certification: Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) (India)

Compare your salary: Get a free Salary Report

You can visit the site and view more detailed report. The site chart shows a range but here it just shows the median. I hope this nudges you forward little more to get the charter sooner.

Any questions you might have, please post it comments and i will be happy to answer.

CFA average salary structure in US

I see lot of people asking what a CFA charterholder earns in average, what i have gathered from various internet sources is below, i know this is 2007 salary levels but i wonder how much encouraging the salary level would be in 2011/2012 with all the meltdown and economic recession around. Even then i will try and bring you latest renumeration structures soon.

This is relevant for US only. I will post for other countries soon in another post.

CFA Salary structure in 2007 --

Here is the average 2007 compensation for survey respondents with less than five years experience in the U.S. for the following roles:


Portfolio manager (equities) - $205,000
Portfolio manager (fixed income) - $126,000
Portfolio manager (indexed/other) - $87,000
Buy-side research analyst (equity) - $149,000
Buy-side research analyst (fixed income) - $130,000
Financial advisor/broker - $111,000
Investment banker - $186,000
Sell-side research analyst (equity) - $150,000
Manager of managers - $113,000

CFA Bonus numbers by type of work for less than 5 years experience:


Portfolio manager (equities) - $50,000
Portfolio manager (fixed income) - $40,000
Portfolio manager (indexed/other) - $17,000
Buy-side research analyst (equity) - $46,000
Buy-side research analyst (fixed income) - $40,000
Financial advisor/broker - $30,000
Investment banker - $93,000
Sell-side research analyst (equity) - $56,000
Manager of managers - $26,000

US City-wise Salaries for CFA

NYC - $205,000
Boston - $167,000
Chicago - $117,000
San Francisco - $170,000
Los Angeles - $161,000
Philadelphia - $160,000
Atlanta - $122,000
Minneapolis - $120,000

Hope this helps.

CFA Level II 2011

After having registered early on in Sep 2010, i did not start reading till Dec 2010 for Jun 2011 CFA Level 2 exam. This was different for what i did for my CFA Level 1 exam way back in Jun 2009. Back then i registered late in January studied only for 4 months and passed. What else was different this time - i did not read the CFAI books, i read only schweser notes this time due to lack of time and laziness. CFAI books are extremely important, they should be read at all costs. Some candidates say schweser/ stalla and many coaching study material is enough to pass, but i can say then u will just PASS and can never learn the material in right essence.
I appeared for CFA Level II exam on Jun 04 2011 in London after all the anxiety pangs, frustration-filled last few days of not knowing all the stuff and not able to solve the questions as one intends to in the last few days before the D-day.

First half of first three hours went pretty smoothly and i was comfortably on a even keel. Second half of first three hours jolted and brought me out of my comfort zone because that is when i realised how valauable the CFAI books are.
Second three hour torture began soon after, i never came back into the second session fully mentally prepared. By the end of the session i was sad/disillusioned and had already started reflecting on the flaws in my preparation.

Right now i am waiting for the result which i somehow already know in my heart. I dont want any miracle to happen coz i really want to learn and tame the untamed.
And then if i see the Pass sign, it will be the satisfaction more than happiness.

CFA & Marriage - An Oxymoron !

For record, i cleared my CFA Level 1 while i was not married 2 years ago. I skipped last year so that i can have some time to myself and my wife, no doubt it was a good decision and it helped me too keep my sanity intact.
I registered for CFA level 2 last year for Jun 2011 ordeal thinking it would be okay since my wife is there to help me get over it, it should be easier now. How naive i was, to the extent of stupid, lol.

Only now i am realising that CFA and marrage is a oxymoron......its proving an uphill task amounting to impossibility. Everyday i get this great euphoric feeling to study very hard when i am about to reach office, i have not been able to understand, why do i get that feeling when i cant study in office. Probably my mind plays games and knows that i cant study now. I try to study in the evening and then there is chat-time, facebook-time, dinner-time and what-not time ... and the last but most important, sleep-time(which can arrive at any time, as soon as i open my CFA Level 2 books). Weekends have been same, i-will -read-in-morning to i-will-read-in-evening, God only knows when i will read.

Though i have not been comfortable with any of the topics till now (as usual) but Quant is a beast which i dont even wanna look at, equity and FRA seems to be okay but others are like reading greek. As soon i finish a LOS, i think i know it, get up in the morning and i have completed forgotten what it was, formulae and everything.

Memory have gone for a toss, how can your memory work properly, when you have to remember hundred other useless stuff, birthdays(remember i have 2 families now after marriage), when to go for grocery shopping, what to buy, what somebody was wearing at some non-descript party, i cant remember which party and what i wore, how would i remember what somebody else was wearing.......and what not, uffff :(

All i ask is sanity and time till 04 Jun 2011..... and hopefully with all of this going on, i can still pass. God Bless me. Amen.

Decide, Plan, Execute

One of my friend came up with an extra-ordinary request.... she asked me to write about "Decisions", i told her i wont be the right person to write about such a topic which i dread myself.
Today, after many days, i mustered the courage to write about what i think about this.

“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.”
I term Decisions as the crossroads where one right/wrong turn can take you closer to or further from your goal. Though at the time of taking the decision, we cant foresee the results of it but few years down the line, we can surely analyse the benefits or lost opportunities.
What decision sounded good and i took at 17 kept me in good stead for couple of years but later it dint serve my long term goal and i took another decision to revise my course of life, so its a dynamic process wherein one has to keep changing/revising or modifying his previous actions to reach the aim.

“Sometimes it's the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.”
One of my friend took a hard decision of quitting his job on his own and then getting into public sector, he succeded and this one decision will go a long way in shaping his way. Another friend left his domain(IT) and has taken the plunge into finance and is hopefully doing good. These small decision have a long term spiral effect on the course of life and that why it is advised to take the decisions very carefully.

“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.”
It is not uncommon to see many decision gone wrong... that should not be termed as failure, instead it should be taken as a learning opportunity and revise them as and when we learn about their outcomes... and thats when it becomes a dynamic process.

“A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion”
Always taking the well-defined path never brought in excellent results, people who took radical but conscious decision created value for themselves, few examples are organisations like Bharti-Airtel and Arcelor-Mittal. If you want to have safe and a hiccup-free life, follow the chef's recipe and create the same thing but mind you you cannot create anything new in life like this.

“It is not always what we know or analyzed before we make a decision that makes it a great decision. It is what we do after we make the decision to implement and execute it that makes it a good decision.”
Execution is the key.... decisions are not great, its the execution power that brings in the results. Dreaming and deciding about the plan is just 10%, 90% is the execution which makes it worthwhile.

"Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader.”
Dont be afraid of the decisions, take decision and take responsibilty of your actions, but be adjusting and humble enough to keep it as a dynamic process.


Note:- I have tried to put in as much as i could, it would be great if u can add more to it, i would be happy for ur comments. Its a good learning for me.

All's well, that ends well !!!!!

For months, i was thinking of doing something worthwhile. i was not liking the idea of going to office at 730 in the morning and coming back at 8 in the nite from Monday to Friday. Weekends passed as if somebody drugged me and i felt like i slept on friday night and got up on Monday morning. Couple of months passed and finally i shortlisted couple of things i can pursue and after drlling down more and decided to take up CFA as my goal.
Decisions are like seeing cobras to me, as soon i have to make them i freeze, things start moving in slow motion. I took good two months and still i was nowhere close to deciding whether to take it up in Jun or Dec.
Finally , one fine day, my partner decided its now or never, her theory is till you dont cough up the money for your exams , you just cant start studying. She asked me to enroll and i did. She paid 1000 $ and was happy ,worried i was. The day was 28th Dec, 2008.
A week later, i was delivered a carton full of books or tomes, six of 'em, scared i was would be an understatement. But my partner's theory worked like magic, once the money is paid, you know its not going to come back, i started studying to get the best ROI.

She prepared my timetables, routines and i started diligently working towards my goal. I was tracking my daily progress and i had full plan till the exam day.
I will get up at 5 am in the morning , study for an hour, hop in the office shuttle and study, during lunch hour, i will revise formulae, come back at 8 pm , have dinner and study for 2-3 hours... daily , non-stop for weeks together.
Till i started, i rarely remember a weekend without a PVR Cinemas movie and/or a lunch/dinner in some fancy restaurant, everything stopped. i was putting in 6 hrs each on saturdays and sundays, sometimes wondering will it be worth doing all this. I stopped living for 5 months, no movies, no outing , no friends and my partner will see to it that i adhere to the rules.
I had planned to go to Nepal and appear(for the uninitiated, we cannot appear in India, everytime Supreme Court has to give permission) and this time also SC ordered it to be conducted in Mumbai and i was happy.
During this time, my partner went away on ofice assignment and i stuck to plan, she came back and again went, i was panicky .... ...... exam was just round the corner and my confidence was dipping , i was doing all i could.
I went to Mumbai, on the bangalore airport, i cut my hand(thankfully it was not the right one), stayed with couple of friends, slept for 3 hours , woke up , ran to the examination hall.... none good signs.
Exam consists of two 3- hour sessions, morning and evening, as soon i came out of the first session, i knew it will take a miracle for me to pass. It was like all India has coverged there in Mumbai, no doubt that was the lone exam centre in India, it was crowded couldnot get anything to eat . As usual i was not carrying any study material there , caught hold of a poor soul and revised something.
Evening session, i realised after 30 mins seems to be easy, i saw the clock after 2 hours and was behind schedule, increased my speed and was just able to complete in time.

I came out , searched my friends and went home, nobody spoke how the exam was, nobody asked, all were happy , finally ordeal was over, whatever may be the result. Same evening i caught flight and came back to Bangalore, not so easily, flight was delayed again ..... for 3 hours , mind you it just takes around 2 hours to reach bangalore from mumbai, reached home at 0230 hrs.

I thought i will sleep like a dog for days together, i was so wrong , was up at 7 -- my office was waiting for me. Everyone had questions for me , how it was and i just said .... i dont know... wait for the result. I, myself didnt know how it went but i was dreadful of both the outcomes, passing also comes with a rider, u have to study for the next level.

Result was to be declared on 28th July, there could not have been a better day, it was my partner's , my fiancee's birthday. I decided one month earlier , i am not going to check the result till 28th passes, i dint want to spoil her day, she had put in so much, sacrificed so much time. heard my tantrums, gave me moral support, boosted me, no way i could have checked my result that day.
It was the day, 28th July, i wished her Happy Birthday and went to office, she too went , result was in the evening(US morning time), i was preparing myself for the outcome, came home early , not for the result but for her birthday. Somebody called me from office and told that result is out and i can check it.
I and she sat to check, i could not just stop myself from checking it then and there. i keyed in the details and asked her to press enter and it was a wrong password, not a good sign.

I entered the correct details and asked her to click Enter again, she did n i prayed harder..... and i just saw a big

PASS

and my eyes swelled, could not read the scores, who cared till the time it was a pass.

Now once again , its cobra time(decision)......for level II, i m still in freeze mode.... will need my better half once again, sooner the better.
Hoping i will be able to write one more pass next year.

Till then See you !

Aim in life !!

In the past few months , i have been in introspection mood, i have been thinking constantly for my " aim in life" , lets put it in more simpler words as to where i want to go , what path i want to follow and to much sadness , the answers have been quite elusive .
I asked myslef as to what i want to do .....what will give me immense happiness and while doing that activity it will seem to me that i am not working .
I wrote down my interest areas starting from academic , sports , nature ,etc......i wrote subjects like finance , solar power , enterpreneurship, travelling , eco-energy, media(news) . Besides this i wrote whatever capabilities i have to match them with my interests , but i doubt if i came to some quantifiable solution.
One thing is sure that i dont want to lead a normal life and be a prototype of a human-robot who gets up in the morning , works in a suffocating environment from 9-5(actually 8-9) and goes back to sleep . What i lose in a typical day process is myself from me , my freedom, my exercise routine.
I want to do few things in my life daily , i need to meditate( of late i have realised the benefits), i want to excercise , i want to have some solitude.
Its not that that i am a sucker for luxury but i want to spend a normal life without gettiing into the rat race , i want to earn money , go globe-trotting , provide the best to my family but why i am nt able to do so .......
After lot of introspection , i came across few thoughts ----
1. I dont enjoy my work, hence i cannot excel in that , if i cant excel in that , i wont be able to make a fortune out of my career .
2. I am not qualified (not academically) enough to follow my dream job, because Indian educational system is all about cramming the old stuff and not about innovating anything new or to create some thing new, it doesnt teach us to think out-of-the-box.
3. Our system creates more I-too-rans than I won.
4. My education didnot teach me to follow my passion , interest rather than that it taught to adjust myself into different areas like engg., medical, management because they are well paid.

These things are ingrained in us .... we have to overcome the mental barrier to break the shell, without taking into considerations our parents aspirations of making us compete endless entrance exams.

Well, i started to write about where i wanted to go and look where i have reached.......anyways i think life is a journey , even i too dont have a destination , God must be having a plan for me , though i want a globe trotting finance related job which will satiate few of my interests in the process.

I would appreciate if i could know that you also feel the same and what is your so called " Aim in Life "!!

CFA(US) vs CFA(India)

If somebody is a MBA(finance) , engineer or any other graduate and has a will to enhance his career in Finance field especially investment banking field, CFA is the answer.
But there are two CFAs doing the rounds
1) CFA from AIMR, USA
2) CFA from ICFAI, Tripura , India
so which one to go for , answer is simple and straight , go for AIMR, USA . It is very simple and straight , there are no reasons for you to go for CFA from ICFAI ,India because of the following reasons :-

a) Indian CFA is just an offshoot of CFA from USA , all the syllabus is similiar and has been copied from its foreign counterpart.
b) Syllabus is more suited to indian industry , which in anycase doesnt have any I-banks to work for , so why to read and learn something which will not be useful.
c) CFA from USA(AIMR) is definitely more recognised, not only in USA but across the globe, I-banks wants the best people from the best schools, universities , then why jeopardise your career .
d) Some people says CFA USA is costly , but if you seriously want to boost your career , then you should pay something for it, NO pains , No gains .
e) There is a myth that both the CFA's are considered equal , i bet you it is not , recruiters dont say overtly but definitely hesitate to hire Indian CFA.
f) Once you become a charter , you join some of the elites in the finance field , namely some 70,000 charter holders . CFA institute , USA has chapters in every major city of the world.

These are just a few reasons why you should make CFA(USA) your right choice, rather than the CFA(Indian), there may be plenty of reasons .

MInd you , its not easy to become a CFA charter hold , it takes sweat and blood to become one. You pay with your hard work, grit , determination and lot of toil to earn CFA designation to write it after your name .

Few Facts:-
1) It is divided into 3 levels , Level 1 happens in June and Dec every year , Level 2 and 3 happens only in June , so that means it takes minimum of 1.5-2 years to appear .
2) Pass percentage is not that encouraging , for Level 1 it is 30-35%, Level 2 - 15-20% , Level 3- 25% approx..
3) Besides this , you pay approx 1000$ for first time and 700$ each time you appear .
4) CFA insitute recommends more than 250 hrs for preparations, rest depends upon ur earlier qualification too.

If you are serious and want to undergo the grind, step in .

Useful links :-
1) http://www.cfainstitute.org/ - you can get all the information you want here , dont keep searching forever .
2) http://www.pagalguy.com/ - most probably here , you will be able to find people for group study in and around your city.
3) http://www.schweser.com/ - these are the best notes , they say to study from after the CFA institute books .
4) http://www.analystnotes.com/ - similiar to schweser.

They are few institutes which train you for the exam, there are conflicting views about their styles, methodologies and success rate , do your search diligently before you enrol for them , but nothing is better than self study .

There are few guys who have written blogs bou CFA , some are documenting their efforts towards achieving their goals daily , read their blog to know more abt " been there , done that - guys" .

IF you have any questions or facing any problems , please shoot , i will be more than happy to answer .

Thanks .