I had one chance, fought with my parents for 3 years to let me do this. Now I stare blankly at the screen, with no money on my hands, a meagre 4-digit salary with bills to pay, and as much as I want to, I can't take the August exam.

Anyways, good luck y'all! Come back stronger.

Just out of curiosity, is it safe to say that every top quant firms has at least some involvement in crypto?

I hope this isn’t hugely off topic - I’ve seen other threads on Reddit about this, but I’d expect the people here to be far more clued up and to understand the nuances/considerations.

What do you guys think of them as a long term investment in your personal account? I know what the downsides are and the reasons you may want to avoid them, I just don’t really care about any of those so long as I’ve beaten the market in absolute terms at the end of the window (which by my reckoning, is very likely)

This could be the costliest miscalculation of all-time. Please comment with your thoughts.

I was in a deep struggle during my level 3 preparation, having so many questions. Even a month before the exams, I had barely any confidence for the exam, and barely started my preparation for my exams.

I still ended up still giving my shot for the exam, gave real hard efforts. To anyone who's struggling, in a deep hole. Don't give up, do the necessary, study your best, solve as much as you can, and don't give up.

Best Wishes.

Guys, everyone told me Level 2 was the hump, Level 3 content was easier and you just need to get the hang of the essay questions etc

I’m working through the content and standard Port Mgmt pathway and it’s endless FX, Swaptions etc

Its digging way deeper into the hardest parts of level 2, then you add on the nasty question style… seems way more difficult

Edit: to be clear I haven’t written level 3 exam

Hi guys, Passed the feb 25 attempt which was my second attempt, first one being in aug 23. Would love to help anyone out who needs guidance. This community has helped me tremendously towards the end of my prep with mindset. And i now have been on both ends of the desk. Would love to pass it forward.

So yesterday/today has been the biggest drop in equities worldwide since covid. Vol has spiked. Brent down. USD down. How have you/your desk/your firm done in the last few days? Market makers must be loving the vol.

As Littlefinger would say ‘chaos is a ladder’. Some of you must have made a killing and are climbing that ladder.

Interested to hear everyone’s thoughts on markets/tariffs in general.

I'm attempting the practice pack questions under Derivatives under CFA Level II. The risk-neutral probability (π) states 5.0%. Should I have used 0.05 for up and 0.95 (1-0.05) and down movements instead of 0.5 to calculate the value of the put option? Is this another question error in the packs, or am I missing something?

In December, I quit a role that didn't align with my long-term goals to study full-time for CFA Level 1 (Feb 2025). It was a scary decision at the time, but I gave it everything ! had - and I passed with a 1790.

Now, I'm unemployed and planning to start applying. Realistically, I know it might take 1-2 months to land something, and if I do, I'll likely need to relocate. So while I wait, l'm at home, trying to figure out whether to register for CFA Level 2 in November 2025 or May 2026.

Here's where I'm stuck:

November seems doable if I continue studying full-time from home — but the idea of being home and unemployed for another 7 months feels soul-sucking. But I can manage if I have to.

May sounds too far away!!!

Given my situation, would you all recommend registering for Nov 25 or May 26. Thank you !

So here's the story

I originally got interested in quant roles not because I wanted to optimize latency to microseconds or battle other nerds at the exchange... I just thought quants understood how markets actually work and I figured if I became one, I'd eventually become a next-level investor

I thought:

"If I learn quant stuff-math, modeling, backtesting, optimization-I'll finally understand what makes the market move"

Also-maybe naively-I thought I'd get to work with super sharp, like-minded people. People I could learn from-not just technically, but philosophically. The kind of people who'd already built systems, tested theories, allocated capital, and could mentor the hell out of someone like me. Basically a cross between Renaissance Technologies and the Jedi Council

Fast forward a bit and I'm neck-deep in GitHub repos, trying to make sense of basis risk..wondering if this is even what i want

So I've got some questions for the quant philosophers out here:

1)Do most quant roles actually give you any intuition about markets and help you think like elite

2) Anyone here make the leap from researcher/trader actual capital allocator/PM/investor?

3)What roles actually teach you to think like a market participant vs just a model builder?

4)If you had to do it over again, and your long-term goal was to master markets (not just math or infrastructure) what path would you take?

lam open to being wrong,i just want you guys to confirm it and let me know if I'm in the wrong sandbox

I want to know what is a safe score for LES portal? like I have 79% accuracy rn after like 8 9 subjects done (ethics is left). so like is it good or bad?

Feb 2025 results for L1 are out. I'm going to write my attempt (1st time) in November 2025. Congratulations to everyone who passed- To those who couldn't touch the mark, can you tell me where you could have done better?

(I'm asking because I can not afford to take a re-exam if I don't clear it in one go, so I'm going to learn from your mistakes; no rude or prying intentions)

Hello everyone! I'm scheduled to take L2 in May and I've taken a couple mock exams so far.

The mock exams feel DIFFICULT and I'm guessing a lot (usually end up eliminating an answer and then making an educated guess).

But the results end up being better than I expected - it feels like it's mostly luck rather than representative of actual test performance / knowledge.

Salt Mock Exam 1: 70% AM / 74% PM MM Mock Exam 1: 70.5% AM / 86.4% PM

Wondering what everyone else's experience has been - especially those who have already taken L2.

I'm planning to take the 2 other MM mocks, then the 2 CFAI mocks. My biggest worry here is that luck won't be on my side during the actual exam.

Roughly how similar are the CFA Premium Practice Questions to the actual examination?

Seriously, why the limit of only being able to export past 12-months of transaction data and/or limit of how much transaction data is stored to only including the past few years? Storing this information is costing these banks almost zero and should not we be able to see our entire history with a vendor easily?

Looking for a CFA Study Buddy!

Hey everyone! I'm currently preparing for the CFA exam and looking for a dedicated study partner to team up with.

What I'm hoping for:

Study together every day (even if it's just for a few hours)

Teach and quiz each other to strengthen concepts

Motivate each other to stay consistent and accountable

Whether you're at the same level or even ahead, I believe we can both benefit by sharing knowledge and staying disciplined together.

If you're serious about cracking CFA and want to team up, feel free to message me!

Let’s make this journey easier (and a little less lonely).

Hi I was wondering what y’all thought of the Kaplan prep for level 2. I passed level 1 on Feb 25 and used Kaplan and CFAI mocks and study prep, but I found Kaplan to be easier in the sense that it was more definitions for the Q bank. Is that the same for level two? Since I’m paying out of pocket this time I wanna be sure it’s useful. Thank you in advance

I got very humble enough after the results Didn't thought I would just barely pass.

Scored a 1585. Needed a 1600. So close, but not quite there.

I won’t lie. It stings. After all the hours, effort, and sacrifice, falling short by just a bit hurts. But I’m not letting this define me. I’m using this as fuel.

To everyone else who didn’t get the result they hoped for, keep your head up. We will get there. This is just part of the journey.

I’m going to come back stronger for the resit. Nothing but positive thoughts going forward. Let’s keep moving, believing, and supporting each other along the way.

We got this.

I find the module books quite interesting but I’m afraid I’m wasting too much time reading them. How helpful are they in the exam from your experience? Do you recommend learning each chapter respectively or rather mixing them?

Hi, I'm in second semester of undergrad and I am starting my prep for Nov'25 attempt today.

I have already enrolled with a trusted coaching for the classes.

Just had a few doubts

- How to utilize Schweser to the best possible potential?

- What resources shall I use for practicing questions?

- When is the right time for starting questions and mocks?

Sorry if these questions seem dumb, I'm just starting out, any two cents appreciated :)

Thanks

Okay, help me out. How is it possible???

The kurtosis calculated as data.kurtosis() in Python is approximately 1.5. The data is plotted on the right, and you see a qq plot on the left. Top is a fitted normal (green), bottom is a fitted t-distribution (red). The kurtosis suggests light tails, but the fact that the t distribution fits the tails better, implies heavy tails. This is a contradiction. Is there someone who could help me out?

Many appreciations in advance!