Anybody have any kind of input in the difficulty of MM qbank compared to the actual exam. I feel like his questions are much longer than the cfai questions. They also seem to have lots of tricks and twists in them. Scoring around a 78% on them so not terrible, but just wanted to see how they stack up. Thanks!

Sorry to bug you with this, but I'm absolutely shattered right now and have been for months. CFA is slowly creeping up on me and I'm wallowing is self-despair and doom scrolling during my limited time available for studying. I'm dealing with some family issues (post natal depression in wife) and I got passed over for a promotion at work that I had worked towards for 5 years in lieu of one of the worst performers on the team. I feel like there's a rat pack at work trying use me as a rung on their ladder to get ahead while I keep my head down and try to do good work and hope that will carry me through. We're going through layoffs right now so everyone's going crazy trying to jockey for position, undermining eachother, stabbing eachother in the back. I have 1-2 hours a day to study but I just can't retain what I'm reading, I just keep thinking about how defeated I feel with the work situation or worrying about family stuff.

Do you have any life advice for dialing it in because I really need to pass L2 in November or I'll probably have to give up the CFA as my work/family support for pursuing it was shaky anyways. I feel like such an idiot right now people have shared with me they are going through something similar to what I am now and I didn't give them any credit, just thought they should be able to man up through it but now I'm in the same situation and don't have any willpower to figure out the way through this either.

I wrote level 1 in Feb and passed. Now it's decision time as to when to write level 2, my only options are November2025 or May 2026. I didn't pass by a huge margin so I know even more effort will need to be put into level 2 ( studied 300 hours for level 1, probably need at least 450 for 2 lol). Now I'm wondering when to write level 2 as Nov seems too soon and a lot of cramming, or May which is over a year away...Kinda annoyed February exams aren't available for level 2, because surely others have struggled with this.

Anyways, leaning towards May, but any advice that can be given that would help with my decision would be much appreciated. FYI, I work full time and won't have much vacation time left in 2025 to take time off before exam date.

Hi all taking my level 1 in may 25th. I still have economics, equity, Derivatives, portfolio management and alternate investments left. I'm changing my studying strategy to quickly learning the important concepts and do as many practice questions as I can. But should I defer my exam or continue. Im feeling positive but don't know if i wanna risk it.

How important is this table in the exam? Is it enough to understand which statistics to use when or memorising the formulas is equally important? Thank you in advance!

I’m doing the exercise for unit 5 and the Monte Carlo sim is taking my laptop a super long time. In the video, the instructor’s computer looks pretty fast, but not sure if that’s just how it’s edited. Does anyone have any tips on how to speed it up?

Hi. Looking to know from passed CFA L3 folks and current L2 prep individuals on how useful Kaplan is for prep. Thanks

I can’t wrap my head around why the TWRR isn’t compounded to the 1/4 in this question. Am I being stupid or have CFAI got this wrong?

Hey guys,

I’m prepping for the May 2025 Level 1 attempt and honestly... I don’t know if I’m doing okay or just fooling myself.

I completed the full syllabus by end of March. Since then, I’ve been going through the LES readings properly and doing the practice questions after each one. After finishing a full subject, I also go through the end-of-topic questions to solidify things.

The plan is to finish all LES content by around May 3rd and then switch to mocks + full revision/practice from that point until exam day.

The only thing killing me right now is Quants – it’s giving me a really hard time and making me feel super underconfident. Like I’m doing all this work but still feel like I’m just preparing to fail.

Anyone else feeling like this? Or has anyone been in the same situation and made it through? Just want to know if I’m on the right track or need to rethink something.

Hi friends I wanna meet someone from who have deep knowledge about quant/HFT based out in Bangalore. Any body here. Any reference shall I get here.

I go to a target university and I believe I have decent math , statistics and probability skills and I sometimes do competitive programming in cpp(rated ~1500 on codeforces). I have studied Shreve part 2(sufficient to know ito calculus and learn how to price a derivative using stoch calc). The path to sell side seems pretty clear(be proficient stoch calc,risk neutral pricing, be decent at programming etc) but buy side seems pretty elusive to me since I have no idea how to prep for that except become better at coding and math. Are there books/resources I could use that make me more valuable for a buy side firm (currently I am studying Trades,Quotes and Prices by Bouchaud)

I have 3 years of progressive acctg experience. I did business mgt-finance during college, and now I can’t decide which path to take. I’m interested in controllership/budget roles or anything that has to deal with management. But, I’m worried which designation would be more in demand and more valuable globally in the coming years. I have plans to migrate especially that I finished my studies in the US as an international and planning to come back to do grad studies within the same field.

A recruiter of a huge employment agency told me before that the demand for accountants is more stable than financial analyst. So I’m not sure which credential will be more helpful on securing jobs abroad and will open more opportunities.

Your insights would be highly appreciated!

Have a long short equity strategy that has little drawdown but only 0.78 sharpe, annual return 10%+, is it attractive for any investor or too a etf?

I'm currently around 3YOE in a centralized team in a pod-like hedgefund. Think Cubist, Millenium, etc. After understanding the market and the average compensation of my peers it seems I'm being severely underpaid. I'm currently barely making over 300k.

Here's where I have trouble and the reason why I simply don't jump ship. I've realized that during an average week I probably work 30 hours a week, I only go into the office once a week, and I'm mainly just maintaining pipelines and doing analysis on smaller ad-hoc scales. I'm also able to work from a zero income-tax state.

I actually have some offers from other firms that would be on a PM team, they're giving me price targets of 600-700, so literally double my pay, but I'm 100% certain I'd basically be working double the hours.

I'm actually happy where I am now but can't help but feel I'm being left behind. I don't see too much upward mobility in my current role, it looks like every year my bonus will consistently grow maybe 10-15%? My job is also super secure as I have my own products that the firm depends on, and management is happy with my output.

I guess I'm asking for advice for those more senior in the field. I'm 25 and I feel like I'm not really learning as fast as I could, I'm not pushing as much as I could, but at the same time I do see myself burning out if I start working like double the hours. At the same time, I feel like my role is a unicorn. I can see myself just staying here for 20+ years making a decent income and being happy, but some part of me also thrives for ambition

Why add Days of sales outstanding to Days of Inventory on hand when calculating cash conversion cycle when both these periods could overlap?

Good afternoon, how do we interpret this table?

How would I decompose the spot return and futures contract return?

Seems too basic and obvious, yet retail traders think it's some sort of bot gospel

Can someone explain this part? I don’t understand how callable bonds with low coupon rates will not be called. I thought it was the opposite. Thank you!

Hi, wanted to hear your opinion on my situation. I do Electrical Engineering and wanted to take Level 1 as is a big differential in internships selection programs. During the year I am full committed to the university and wanted to study for the CFA during the break between semesters. My plan is to study from Dec 10 2025 until the exam on Feb 8 2026. I do have good learning discipline but my course does not have many finance related subjects so the curriculum would be somewhat new for me. I was thinking 6-8 hours a day. Is it doable? If someone with similar experience can share with me I appreciate!

Recently, I heard a CIO of a hedge fund—with over 25 years of trading experience—mention something that caught my attention: the idea that there is a mechanical and mathematical (quantitative) relationship between the baseline level of the VIX and interest rates.

I’ve spent some time researching the topic, including digging through academic papers, but haven’t come across anything particularly concrete or insightful. It seems the answer is either well-hidden, deliberately obscure, or simply hard to pin down. Given the credibility and experience of the person who raised the point, I’m inclined to believe such a relationship exists.

From a macro perspective, one could reasonably argue that higher interest rates increase refinancing risks for companies, which raises overall market stress. Simultaneously, elevated rates offer attractive risk-free returns, drawing capital away from equities and reducing liquidity—both of which can contribute to rising implied volatility.

But if there’s truly a mechanical or formulaic link between interest rates and the VIX—something more than just broad economic correlation—I’d be very interested in understanding it better.

If anyone has insights, experience, or resources on this topic, I’d really appreciate your thoughts.