Is it just me or is the CFAI long winded and not to the point everyone, finance, finding, really

bchadwick

Hi guys, I'm on book 2 right now and I find the behavioural finance section all over the place and don't really focus on the main point... Is this just me or is everyone else finding the same thing?

canadiananalyst

yup... first look and found it extremely fresh and informative... but left with a feeling.. where is this leading to??... how r we going to get tested on it??... no Q's at the end of the chapters doesn't help either...

will have to wait till schweser notes is out for the year...

IAmNeil

What I don't get is, how is the CFAI books so important then if the material doesn't flow that well....

Unforseen

its taken you 6000 pages to realize this?

Chuckrox

GreenTomato Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi guys, I'm on book 2 right now and I find the
> behavioural finance section all over the place and
> don't really focus on the main point... Is this
> just me or is everyone else finding the same
> thing?

Really? I read through SS3 (Behavioral Finance) and I thought it was very well written. Each of the examples and probability questions have been built carefully to demonstrate the author's arguments. For instance, did you solve the probability problem on page 10 to figure out the correct answer of 96.04? Unless you know how to arrive at the correct answer yourself you are not going to be able to figure why people frequently go for the wrong choices (45% & 67%) - heuristic driven bias.

The readings are fully focused on the topic at hand - though it's not easy material to grasp.

Windjam

I find this whole study session to be built as (quite Ironically) a heuristicly learnt area.

there are quite a few new words and ideas to learn, and I assume we will need to identify these on the test, but few definitions and not a single one that could be looked up in the book's glossary. Most of these new words we are to derive for ourselves through examples and no clear cut "this is what it is" type of reading.

Don't get me wrong here, I can figure this all out from the examples. But let's be honest, learning through heuristics does open us up to interpretations and biases; which is why we have this reading in the first place. I would much rather have black and white material to learn from and have my memory/understanding be my downfall on the test rather than greyish interpretations.

Thanks,
Fin

liangfeng

I guess there's nothing clear cut about investor behavior to say this is what it is :-) The readings illustrate generic behaviors and I suppose the test will make us apply it to different scenarios - and I'm certain there's gonna be greyish interpretations.

It's a master's level program and memory will not cut it.

cityboy

Doesn't flow well compared to what? Behavioral finance in particular is a squishy area and not something that lends itself to full understanding upon first pass, though I thought it was one of the more interesting topics for LIII.

Of course, I didn't get swap pricing, pension accounting, 2 bond hedge, and a lot of other stuff in the program on first pass either. Did you?